Senju Naruto - The Rise of a Hero
by tushu4572
Summary: Senju Naruto is the descendent of Tobirama Senju and is raised by Danzo Shimura to turn the world upside down. There will be many problems he will face because of his lineage but he will face them with strong will and full power. Mokuton-Naruto.
1. Prologue

**Senju Naruto- The Rise of a Hero**

**Prologue**

**Inspired by 'The Hope of the Senju Clan' by Aragon Potter**

**Naruto does not belong to me.**

-0-

It was late at night and the moon shone brightly up in the sky. A lone figure could be seen walking briskly out of the gates of Konohagakure aka Konoha aka The Hidden Leaf Village. A month ago, The First Shinobi War ended between the Elemental Nations, with an armistice treaty. But the damage had already been done. Konoha lost its first two Hokages. And the Third Hokage was walking to a specific location deep in the forest surrounding the village.

Hiruzen Sarutobi was thinking about the turn of events that led to the situation he was going to handle now. After being appointed as Hokage by The Second in the middle of a battle was an experience in its own. The war had ended causing a serious damage to the village economy. Even after The First had divided the tailed beast among other shinobi villages to promote peace, it generated war because of the hostilities it created. Even after the treaty, Sarutobi feared that the Second War will occur soon. So he was planning to do his best so that the village stand strong when that fateful event occurs.

Earlier that evening when he was working on paperwork in his office, the young Hokage was informed by his ANBU that his wife has Biwako has called in to discuss something important. He knew what would be the topic of discussion, so he dismissed his ANBU and placed privacy seals around the room once his wife came to the office. Biwako was a medic-nin with long brown hair tied in a pony with dark eyes which radiated intelligence and experience beyond her age. It was her skill and wise nature that attracted Sarutobi towards her.

"Hey Biwako-chan! How may I help you?" Hiruzen asked, playing dumb.

"_Hokage-sama_, don't play dumb with me. You know why I am visiting you in the office. Don't you?" Biwako asked with a professional look. Hiruzen knew he has to drop his act. He knew he has to act serious with his wife, to remain on her safe side.

"So is it time already, Biwako-chan?" Hiruzen asked, this time with a serious face.

"Hai, Hokage-sama. It is time. I am taking Tōka-sempai and Mito-sempai to the Senju-cave in the forest. I came to ask for ANBU support. If something goes wrong, I will send a word for you."

"Alright." Hiruzen nodded and clapped his hands three times. Three ANBU appeared in front of him bowing. "Dragon, this is an S-rank secret mission. You and your team will secretly lead Biwako-chan, Tōka-sempai and Mito-sempai out of the village in half an hour to the secret Senju-cave in the forest. Help them however you can. Any loose ends are to be dealt with. If necessary, send one of your men to me. Dismissed." Hiruzen ordered. They left as quickly as they came.

But things don't tend to turn out as easy as they seem. There were some complications and he was asked to come to the cave by the ANBU who visited him late after midnight. After donning his Hokage dress, he quickly left for the cave. Even if he looked alone, there are always two ANBU guards tailing after him whether he order them or not, some of the quirks of being a Kage.

-o-

After reaching the cave, he met with Uzumaki Mito, an exceptional kunoichi and jinchūriki of Nine-tails fox. She came to Konoha to marry the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, after an alliance was formed between Konohagakure and Uzushiogakure. Her prowess in chakra control and fūinjutsu (Sealing Techniques) was so great that she sealed the Nine-tails within herself after her husband subdued it in the battle. Though she couldn't control it, she began to use the ability to sense negative emotions.

"Mito-sempai! What seems to be the problem?" asked Hiruzen with a straight face.

"The birth was successful, Hokage-sama! The young Minato is a healthy baby boy. But there was a complication during the birth due to which Tōka-san doesn't have much time and wants to talk to you." Said Mito with a solemn expression.

Hiruzen's face frowned as he understood the situation. Tōka Senju, like Mito Uzumaki, is a legendary kunoichi due to her skills in genjutsu (Illusionary Techniques). She was engaged to his teacher, Tobirama Senju, The Second Hokage. But their marriage was postponed because of the war. After his sensei (Teacher) died in the battle and declared him Hokage, he came to know that Tōka was pregnant with his Sensei's child. Due to the number of enemies of Senju clan and his sensei, the pregnancy of Toka was kept secret.

They both walked to the room where Toka and Biwako were. Biwako was cleaning a golden haired boy and Toka was lying in the bed with eyes half opened, her usual energy all drained out of her. As they entered, Toka's attention turned to the young Hokage and a small smile crept on her face, unlike her usual stoic expression.

"Come here Hiruzen-san, I don't have much time and much to discuss" Tōka called with pale voice as Hiruzen rushed to her and stood by her.

"I am happy that I became mother to Tobi-kun's child." Toka spoke as a small tear slid down her eye. "I know that my Minato will be a strong man in the future. But right now he is weak and prone to the enemies my clan made. I have talked to Mito-sempai and we have come to a conclusion. He will not be told about his clan and his parents till you see fit. Even others in the village and the clan shouldn't know about his birth. Just spread the rumor that Toka passed away along with the child." She sobbed.

Hiruzen's heart broke when he heard about her conditions. Biwako came near him and placed the baby in his hands. He looked down on the baby and couldn't help but smile. Unlike his parents, he had bright blue eyes and spiky blonde hair, but had a round face and beautiful smile like his mother. Hiruzen could see a powerful ninja in him in near future. But the fact still hurt that young Minato won't be associated with the world's strongest and most respected clan, whose blood he carries in his body. He was brought out of his thoughts when Toka coughed violently.

"It seems that my time has come. Hiruzen, just see that my conditions are met and he is adopted by a caring family. Just promise to do that for me so that I can pass on easily." Toka pleaded.

"I promise Toka-sempai. Young Minato will have a nice family." Promised Hiruzen, his cracked voice betraying his stoic face, as ninjas are trained not to show emotions.

"Thank You!" said Toka with a smile as her eyes closed, passing to the Pure World (Heaven).

-0-

Namikaze Minato (age 35) was having best days of his life. The Third Shinobi War ended six months ago with Konoha emerging victorious. His village considered him hero as he stopped an invasion by a thousand Iwa shinobi single handed using his famed **Hiraishin No Jutsu**, earning him the moniker of _Konoha's Yellow Flash_. Though he was saddened by the fact that two of his students, Uchiha Obito and Nohara Rin, died during the war.

After he graduated from the academy, he was taken in by Jiraiya, Third Hokage's student and one of the three legendary _Konoha's Sannin_, who earned his moniker during the Second Shinobi War when he, Tsunade and Orochimaru battled against Hanzō of the Salamander and survived. For someone from a civilian family, Minato had very large chakra reserves and his chakra control was very refined, a fact that always disturbed Jiraiya. Using that fact, Jiraiya became interested in teaching him the arts of Fūinjutsu, which Minato adopted quickly. Seeing his interest in the lost art of fūinjutsu, The Third also gave Minato some scrolls belonging to Mito Uzumaki saying that she would want him to have them. Minato had also showed interest in Space-Time Jutsus and learnt many jutsus belonging to The Second Hokage, most notably, the **Hiraishin No Jutsu.** He enjoyed being fast and was known for it. He also developed **Rasengan**, shape manipulation of chakra at its highest level, after observing the Tailed Beast Ball and it required no hand seals. All in all, he had a very successful ninja career.

Minato was having ramen at Ichiraku's with his wife Namikaze Uzumaki Kushina. She came from Uzushiogakure before it was destroyed during the Second Shinobi War. She had special chakra which could transform into chains and could subdue a tailed beast. Before Mito Uzumaki died, she transferred the tailed beast into Kushina, making her the second Jinchūriki of Nine-tailed Fox. She fell in love with Minato when he rescued her from Kumogakure aka hidden village of Cloud shinobis, who wanted to use her special chakra to tame the tailed beasts. Due to her fierce taijutsu (hand-to-hand combat techniques) and fūinjutsu, she got the nickname _Red Hot-Blooded Habanero_.

As they were discussing about their recent missions and flirting with each other, an ANBU suddenly dropped down and addressed to Minato, "Minato-san, the Hokage wants your presence in the council room." The Dog-masked ANBU said without emotions

"Council room? What do the old dogs want from Minato-kun?" Kushina asked seriously.

"I am not allowed to discuss them with you Kushina-san. I have just been ordered to bring Minato-san to the Council room." Dog said with no emotion.

"Don't worry Kushina-chan. I'll go and see what they want." Said Minato. He paid the bill to the old man Teuchi and he and Dog ANBU **shunshin **to the Council Room.

-0-

Minato found Council Room to be very depressing. The place reeked of politics and sugar-coated lies. In the centre of the room, there was a large rectangular table. On opposite side of table sat the Fire Daimyō, Fire Country's feudal lord with the kanji of 'Fire' behind him on the wall. On his right, sat four of his advisors and the ANBU commander, Dragon. On his left, sat three Konoha's council elders, Mitokado Homura, Utatane Koharu and Shimura Danzō aka 'The Darkness of the Shinobi', The Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen and Jonin Commander. All in all, it was the commanding centre of Konoha that reeked of sugar-coated lies.

Prior to his entrance, there was a heated discussion going on in the council room related to the future of Konoha, who will become the next Hokage? Danzō had told the council that Hiruzen had turned too soft and weak to continue his job and chose Orochimaru as the next candidate. Hiruzen, though praised the capability of Orochimaru as a genius, denied the candidature due to his sinister and greedy attitude and had placed Namikaze Minato as the next Hokage through the approval of others. They then sent the ANBU to bring Minato to the room.

As Minato entered the room and bowed on his knees to the others, he could sense anger and jealousy on Danzō's face and appraised looks on others. The Hokage stood up and came in front of him.

"I believe that you will carry on the Will of Fire that was entrusted to me by the First and the Second, and will carry this village towards prosperity. So I want to entrust you with the future of Hidden Leaf and the Shinobi World. So do you accept the position of Hokage, Minato?"

Minato was stunned. His life-long dream of becoming Hokage was coming true. But he hid his excitement well and replied with a serious tone. "I will do my best, Lord Third."

"What lies ahead is not peaceful. Will you be able to handle it?"

"I won't disappoint you. Lord Third."

"I know you won't." said Hiruzen with a soft smile.

The council, except Danzō, smiled and clapped at his approval. Hiruzen was happy that his Sensei's son will become the Fourth Hokage of Konoha. 'You see Tobirama-sensei. Your son is going to become the leader of village you cherished. You should be proud of him. I think it's time to tell him and the world his real identity, Tōka-sempai.'

Hiruzen clapped his hands once and Dog-ANBU appeared in front of him. "Dog, I want you to bring Kushina-san to the council room. There are some secrets that I want to reveal today." The Third ordered. Dog nodded and **shunshin **away. The council and Minato was looking at Hiruzen with confused look and murmured to each other. 'What secret is to be revealed, Saru?' thought the elders.

Within few minutes Kushina appeared in front of the council with serious face. When Dog-ANBU came to her and asked her to come, she was fully prepared to take down the council if something had happened to her Minato-kun. But when she came to the room, Minato was standing in front of the Hokage with a confused look. Apart from Hokage, who was smiling, everybody in the room shared Minato's expression. After quickly bowing to the council she stood beside Minato and murmured to him.

"What is it Minato-kun? Did something happen?" asked Kushina.

"I don't know Kushina-chan. The Hokage wants to reveal some secret to us." Replied Minato. Soon, Kushina also shared the confused look.

Hiruzen, though happy, was prepared for the negative outcome of these new revelations. So he took a quick breath and prepared for telling the truth.

"Minato, what do you know about the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama?" asked Hiruzen. The council room had a stressful environment now. Minato was taken aback from this question but replied nevertheless.

"Hokage-sama, Lord Second was younger brother of Lord First and helped creating this village. He was known for his leadership skills and helped achieving political stability and ensuring Konoha's stability. Though he didn't inherit his brother's Wood release bloodline limit, he was known for his prowess in Water release and was known to create water from air. He was also your sensei along with Homura-san and Koharu-san. He died during the First Shinobi War while fighting with Kumo's Kinkaku Force."

"Good job, Minato. It seems that your general knowledge about your former leaders is good. Now tell me what you know about Senju Tōka?" asked Hiruzen.

Minato and the others in the room didn't know where this was going but he wouldn't deny his leader's request. "Senju Tōka was a highly skilled kunoichi who was known for her prowess in genjutsu. She was a close associate of Lord First and Lord Second."

"What is it, Saru? Where are you going with this?" asked Koharu.

"The thing I am going to reveal is an S-rank secret which I was told to reveal when the time is right. Because the bare thought of it could reshape the future." Said the Hokage in authoritative voice. "Now the elders here know that Tobirama-sensei was engaged with Tōka-sempai during the First Shinobi War." Continued Hiruzen as he saw the elders nodding their heads positively. "And they also know that the Tōka-sempai was pregnant with sensei's child." This earned few gasps from people in the council room apart from the elders.

"We also know that the child died along with Tōka-sempai during childbirth. Where are you going with this Saru?" asked Homura.

"What if I told you that was a lie?" asked Hiruzen earning loud gasps across the room. Minato and Kushina stood wide-eyed in front of Hokage.

"Yes Minato, what I want to reveal is that you are the son of Tobirama-sensei and Tōka-sempai. And the heir of Senju Clan." Hiruzen dropped the bomb. "When you were born, Tōka-sempai was in critical condition and due to wars and number of enemies they had created during the war, she and Mito-sempai agreed that you won't be told about your Senju lineage till I see fit. And since you are going to become Hokage, I didn't want your lineage kept secret from you."

So many things were running from in Minato's mind. He wanted to be angry but realized that the fact it was done for his safety. Being the heir of Senju clan was as big responsibility as being a Hokage. He knew why Senju clan was known to be feared and respected all across the Shinobi world. A single Senju can turn the world upside down, and now he thinks about it, he knew winning the war against Iwagakure aka the hidden village of Rock single-handedly was a skill he inherited in blood. He knew now why he had big reserves of chakra and refined chakra control. He just couldn't be angry how much he wanted to.

"Hokage-sama, can you show me the proof?" asked Minato, keeping a serious, straight face. Now that elders think about it, his face resembled Lord Second's serious face. Hiruzen nodded and went out of the door. Soon, he returned with his wife Biwako and a scroll with a blood seal on it. Hiruzen came to Minato and handed him the scroll.

"This scroll was written by Mito-sempai and was sealed by her. Only a Senju can open the scroll. I think it will contain all the information you need. If you further want to confirm it, you can ask my wife here. She helped your mother give birth to you and has all the medical details about you." Said Hiruzen. Minato nodded and bit his thumb to draw some blood. He wiped it on the seal and it opened with a click, confirming he was a Senju. He opened it up and read slowly.

_Minato-kun_

_If you are reading this letter, then I believe that Hiruzen has thought the time is right. I am suffering from old age that is why I am writing this to you. You are the son of my brother-in-law Senju Tobirama and my friend Senju Tōka. Don't carry ill will to them or the others for not telling you the truth, but know that you are always loved by your parents._

_After the First Shinobi War, the village was in turmoil and the young Hiruzen was doing his best to control it. A fact like your birth could have easily put your life at risk. The best we could do was hide your identity and give you to a caring family and we found the Namikaze family to be the best option for you. Now that you know about your lineage, be proud of it. Live your life to its fullest and find someone who you love and care for you. Know that I and your parents always loved you. And I had told Tsuna-chan about you so feel free to contact her._

_We believe in you._

_Uzumaki Mito_

Kushina placed her hand on Minato's shoulder as tears came down his face. He wiped his tears off and looked at the Hokage and gave him the scroll back. The scroll was rotated across the room and a smile came on everyone's face.

"Well what do you know? Another Senju to gain the title of Hokage" Fire Daimyō smiled as he read the letter.

"Now, do you want to adopt the name Senju or do you want to continue on the name Namikaze?" asked Hiruzen.

Minato smirked.

"I think it's time…to let the world know that a Senju has ascended to Hokage title again!"


	2. Sealing the Curse

**Senju Naruto- The Rise of a Hero**

**Chapter 2 – Sealing the Curse**

**Inspired by 'The Hope of the Senju Clan' by Aragon Potter**

"…"–talking

'…'-thinking

""**-demon/Jutsu**

**Naruto does not belong to me.**

-0-

For the next five years, Senju Minato (age 40) ruled the people of Konoha well as their Fourth Hokage. The paperwork was too much, the council was forceful but Minato handled everything well, as it was in his blood to rule. People of his village accepted his new identity with full joy and happiness. His new name gave another reason for the rival villages (especially Iwa) to tremble at the reputation it created and he would, at times, take full advantage of it.

His rule was liked by all the ninjas and civilians alike. He didn't show favoritism and gave some rights for civil council to handle. He changed the academy curriculum, easing it a bit so that even the civil students may find a chance to become ninjas. He didn't let any clan to dub themselves higher than the other clans and made himself the supreme authority and ruled wisely. He was declared the strongest Hokage in the history of Konoha. His personal life was also going good and he didn't let his life as a Hokage ruin his private life. His new relation with Tsunade as a family member was also getting strong. She even came back to Konoha with Shizune after she abandoned her ninja life because of personal problems. They all lived together in the Senju clan compound. They lived like brother-sister rather than uncle-niece because of the age difference with Tsunade (age 44) being older than Minato. Kushina was even expecting a child with him which was to be due soon.

Midway through her pregnancy, the expecting parents decided to name their unborn son (Tsunade scanned to find the gender of the unborn child) 'Naruto', after the main character of Jiraiya's first book 'The tale of utterly gutsy ninja'. Minato even asked Jiraiya and Tsunade to act as their child's godparents, for which they happily agreed.

As the day of the birth approached, Minato started making special arrangements for childbirth at the Senju Cave. According to the sealing scrolls of Mito Uzumaki, Minato knew that the seal containing Nine-Tails Fox on Kushina will be at its weakest during childbirth. So on October 10, when Kushina's water broke, Minato declared emergency in the village with high alert guards all around and made Hiruzen and Jiraiya in-charge of the village. Then he, along with Kushina, Tsunade, Biwako, and Shizune went to the cave using his **Hiraishin No Jutsu**. The cave was then sealed off for anyone except for the four ANBU guarding outside the cave.

-0-

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH! IT REALLY HURTS DATTEBANE!" screamed Kushina.

"Tsunade-nee! Biwako-san! I have never seen her in so much pain. Is she alright?" Said Minato worriedly.

"Hai! Hai! She is fine. Are you watching her seal properly?" asked Tsunade.

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHH! MINATO DO SOMETHING?" cried Kushina, writhing in the pain of labor.

"What should I do? What should I do?" asked Minato.

"Show some composure! You are the Hokage! Women are strong. They can handle this much pain where men cannot." scolded Biwako. Suddenly, Kushina's seal began to break slowly. Minato tried his level best but he couldn't stop it from breaking.

"Kyuubi is so strong! It's trying to break free! Hang in there, Kushina, Naruto!" said Minato as he concentrated more on the seal.

Outside of the cave, a lone black-cloaked figure chocked the last one of the ANBUs guarding outside. He had a mask on with a single eye-hole. He stood there watching the sealed entrance of the cave for a full minute than walked right through it, like a ghost.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" Kushina cried as she pushed once more.

"You are doing good Kushina! The head is out. Just one more push." Said Tsunade.

The Kyuubi in Kushina's seal was breaking the seal with full power. "Hurry up Naruto!" shouted Minato as he sweated forcing the Kyuubi to stay inside the seal. After a whole minute of writhing and screaming, Minato heard a small cry of a baby. Tsunade had quickly cut the umbilical cord and Biwako wrapped the baby in a white blanket.

Minato was ecstatic that his son has finally been born. He asked Biwako to let him hold Naruto but she quickly shooed him away. "It's the right of a mother to see her baby first." To which Minato dumbly nodded.

"First Lady Kushina, let me introduce you to your son Senju Naruto."

Kushina took the baby and laid him by her side to see him fully. Blond, spiky hair and bright blue eyes like his father, round face like her own adorned with three whisker-like marks on each side of his face.

"He is beautiful dattebane." Said Kushina as she smiled looking at her child like he was the most beautiful thing in the world.

"Now Kushina, give Naruto to me so that I can do some tests on him to make sure he is perfectly fine." Asked Biwako to which Kushina reluctantly nodded and handed Naruto to her.

Tsunade came to Minato and hugged him, "Congrats Minato! Now you are a father and we have another member in our small family. Let's meet up with Jiraiya and Sensei and open up that special sake bottle that you saved for special occasions."

"Sure Tsunade-nee! Just let me meet up with Kushina-chan." Tsunade nodded as Minato turned to face his wife.

"Hey Kushina-chan! I want to tell me that I am so happy that we are able to extend our small family with young Naruto-kun. Thank you for bringing him to our lives. This is the best day of my life." Said Minato. Little did he knew that the day might be his last?

"AAHHH!" **THUMP!**

Minato, Kushina, Tsunade quickly turned their heads to see what happened. In front of them was a masked-man carrying baby Naruto and choking Shizune and Biwako lying in front of him in her own pool of blood.

"Naruto!" cried Kushina, as she writhed on her bed. Her strength low due to labor.

"Tick! Tick! Tick! Tick! Hurry up Hokage-_sama_! The clock is ticking!" spoke the visitor with a heavy voice and venom in his words.

Minato suddenly appeared in front of the visitor and swiped at him with his kunai. To his surprise, the kunai passed right through him without hitting anything, as if the visitor wasn't even there. But due to this stunt, Naruto passed right through his hands and fell into Minato's hands. Minato turned towards the visitor to see him passing right through Tsunade's attacks and stood near Kushina.

"The clock is ticking Hokage-sama!" the visitor spoke again in his mirth filled voice. Suddenly a spiral black port opened and sucked away Kushina and the visitor, closing immediately. 'Space-time ninjutsu (Ninja techniques)? But how?' thought Minato. He looked down at Naruto to see if he was fine. 'But something doesn't feel good. What ticking time was he talking about?' Suddenly, Minato felt something different under Naruto's blanket. On turning it, he saw that it was filled with explosive seals.

"Oh shit!"

Minato wasn't known the fastest ninja ever for nothing. He quickly threw the blanket as far as possible and after tagging Tsunade and Shizune (who had fainted due to sudden pressure around the throat), he teleported to the **Hiraishin **kunai he had hung in his room.

"Tsunade-nee!" Minato called out. "Please help Shizune out and after you are done with her, let her stay here with Naruto and you go out to Sandaime-dono for assistance." He ordered.

Not one to oppose the village leader, Tsunade nodded and quickly started helping Shizune with her medical abilities. Minato, in the meantime, got ready for the upcoming battle with the masked ninja to rescue his wife.

-0-

Deep in the forest, few kilometers away from Konoha, the masked man was seen drawing intricate seal design on the ground. Kushina laid behind him unconscious due to low energy after labor. After finishing with the seal design, the masked visitor picked Kushina up and laid her in the centre of the seal.

'Yes, the time has come again for the Kyuubi to go wild on Konoha. I will make sure they will never forget this night.' The masked figure thought as he grinned like a madman behind his mask. He uncovered Kushina's seal on her stomach and his fingers stated to glow in strange purple glow. He slammed them on the seal and rotated his hand in clockwise direction.

**Fūin-Kai **(Seal: Release)

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH" screamed Kushina as the swirls on her seal dissolved into a big black dot. The seal on the ground glowed as the masked man pulled his hand away along with a stream of red chakra out of Kushina's seal.

Inside Kushina's mindscape, Kyuubi roared as the chakra chains around it started to loosen up and snap. It wriggled to get free when it felt a tug of someone pulling it out.

Outside of the seal, the red chakra started to take shape in the form of a giant red fox. Red eyes, red-orange fur, nine-tails moving absentmindedly, bloodlust thick in the air. After forming fully, Kyuubi roared and the shockwaves easily destroyed the nearby trees. The strongest of the nine-tailed beasts was a force to be reckoned with. It looked down on the ground to see its unconscious former container and a masked man looking intently at him.

"Yes! Konoha will fall today. This day shall be their end!" shouted the masked man as his **Sharingan **started spinning quickly, controlling the beast's mind and senses, as they both were pulled into a black hole of the masked man.

As he was busy with the Kyuubi, Minato quickly appeared beside his unconscious wife using the **Hiraishin Seal **he had placed on her. Seeing the Kyuubi in its full glory, Minato feared the worst. Planning quickly, he picked up his wife and teleported back to his house using **Hiraishin**. He saw now-awakened Shizune sitting next to sleeping Naruto. Seeing the Hokage with his wife, Shizune ran up to her leader. "Hokage-sama?"

"Shizune, take care of Kushina and Naruto for me? And where is Tsunade?" asked Minato.

"Hokage-sama, Tsunade-sama has gone to Sandaime-sama as you asked. Where are you going?" asked Shizune.

"Kyuubi has been released. I have to deal with it." Said Minato as he left the stunned Shizune with his family.

"Be careful, Hokage-sama."

-0-

Minato was standing on his carved head up on Hokage monument. He carefully observed how Kyuubi was summoned by the masked figure inside the village and how easily it was wreaking the village even after the dire efforts of the Third Hokage, Jiraya, Tsunade and many other top ranking ninjas of the village. There was huge loss to the village property, but due to Minato's security enforcement, very few people were killed. Suddenly, he felt someone appear behind him out of thin air.

"It looks like you saved your son from the ticking bomb, eh Hokage-_sama_", the masked man snarled.

"Who are you and why are you doing this?" asked the Hokage as he turned to face the new visitor.

"Who I am is of little importance. Let's just say I have a score to settle with this damn village." The masked man answered as he flared his **Sharingan**.

'That's the Sharingan!' Minato thought.

"How did you do it? You infiltrated the village and outmaneuvered the maximum security I enforced around the village. You even knew the top-secret cave where I took Kushina for Naruto's birth. You also know that fact that the Kyuubi's seal is at its weakest during the childbirth and took full benefit of it. Now I can see you are even controlling Kyuubi with that Sharingan of yours. From all this evidence, I can only draw one conclusion."

"And that is?" asked the masked man.

"Are you Uchiha Madara?" asked Minato.

"Hahahaha! Maybe I am. Maybe I am not!" laughed Madara.

"How is it possible? You should be dead when the First defeated you so many years ago. Even if you were left alive, you should have died of old age!" said Minato.

"What can I do? Fate had other plans for me. Now hurry up!" said the Madara taking out his iron chains.

"Let's dance!"

-0-

Minato and Madara teleported to the clearing above the Hokage Monument. As Minato took out his famed three-pointed **Hiraishin **kunai, he started analyzing the situation.

'He is not an ordinary Uchiha! He can control Kyuubi and uses a time-space ninjutsu that is more powerful than **Hiraishin**. I have to finish him here and free Kyuubi from his control. Otherwise it will be more chaotic.' Though Minato as he took his stance.

"As I ordered Kyuubi to destroy your village, your people won't have any hope left when they are crushed by Kyuubi." Shouted Madara as he rushed towards Minato to attack.

Minato swiftly took the chance and went to stab Madara in his chest using his kunai. But to his amazement, his hand passed right through him again. As Madara didn't stop, Minato was caught up by his chains. Thinking quickly, Minato threw his kunai at a distance and teleported himself using his famed **Hiraishin no Jutsu.**

'That happened again! It feels like his flesh isn't even here. My physical attacks have no effects on him. But how is he able to hold those chains and attack me? Means he quickly materialize himself to attack me. So I can only attack him when he is attacking me. And it all narrows down to speed. Whoever is the fastest, wins?' Thought Minato as he turned and faced Madara.

They both charged at each other again. As they neared each other, Minato fired his kunai from one hand at Madara's head and charged his **Rasengan **in his free hand. As he suspected, the kunai passed straight through his mask. Madara's right hand reached to Minato to attack him.

"I win!" declared Madara.

"…"

Quicker than the flash, Minato was behind Madara holding his Kunai as he slammed his **Rasengan** down on his back.

"AAAHHHH! Damn you!" howled Madara as he slammed down hard on the ground under the force of **Rasengan**. Before jumping back, Minato quickly placed his **Hiraishin seal** on the back of Madara without his notice.

As the dust settled, Madara jumped back to catch his breath. "Ha…Ha…Ha…Ha. That was quick Hokage-sama. Ha…Ha…. You surely live up to your reputation. I should not let my guard down now." Commented Madara between his breaths.

Before Madara could begin anything, Minato was in front of him slamming his hand on his stomach, placing the **Keiyaku Fūin (Contract Seal) **and freeing the Kyuubi from his control.

"With this, the Nine-tails is no longer under your control." Declared the Fourth Hokage.

"I'll come back again. And I will take over the world, Fourth Hokage." Said Madara as he ran away using his space-time ninjutsu.

-0-

Though the Kyuubi was out of Madara's control that didn't mean it stopped attacking. Now it was attacking Konoha with full power for all the sealing the village had it under for more than 50 years. Each swing of one of its nine tails will level down buildings, each swipe of its claws will kill dozens of ninjas, and each roar will scare a dozen more. It looked like the Shinigami (Death God) had himself come down to Konoha to pass judgement.

Hiruzen and his students were doing their best in defending the village and organizing the counter attack at Kyuubi. Seeing their village's former leader boosted the morale a little but everyone was eagerly waiting for the Senju leader to kick the overgrown beast's ass.

"Everybody! Do your best! Jounins, Attack together!" ordered the Third Hokage.

"Hai!" Everybody shouted as they advanced towards Kyuubi, attacking with everything they had at their disposal. Jutsus, kunai, shurikens, exploding tags, they threw everything at the Kyuubi but couldn't even scratch the skin of the beast. As Kyuubi started charging its **Tailed Beast Bomb**, panic spread among the ninjas.

'Oh shit! If that attack lands on the village, we are done for!' Jiraiya thought.

Every ninja in the vicinity waited for their doom as Kyuubi fired its jutsu towards them. But before the attack reached its target, a yellow flash appeared in front of them and in a blink of the eye, the beast bomb disappeared as if it wasn't even there in the first place.

Soon a blast occurred in deep of the forest few kilometres away. Before anybody could contemplate what happened, an overgrown red toad with a smoking stick in mouth landed on Kyuubi's head. A man with golden hair and white coat could be seen standing at top of the toad.

"That the Fourth! The Fourth Hokage is here to save us!" a cheer erupted among the ranks of shinobi as their leader had come to save them. And as quick as they appeared, they disappeared again but this time along with the Kyuubi.

'What are you doing Minato? What are you thinking?' thought Hiruzen and his two students as they searched for the Fourth Hokage.

-0-

In the same clearing created by the **Tailed Beast Bomb**, Minato and Kushina landed along with the Kyuubi not far away. Kushina was holding Naruto in her arms and Minato was catching his breath.

"Ha…Ha…Are you alright? I am low at chakra myself." Said Minato as he placed Kushina carefully on the ground.

Kyuubi saw its container and its anger doubled. The fox growled and slowly made its way towards the Fourth and his family. Without looking back at the fox, Minato consoled his wife.

"Don't worry! I'll hold him. There are things that I have to protect." He declared as he faced Kyuubi with determined look.

"Wait Minato!" said Kushina as she gathered her energy. "I will do it…for you."

**Kongō Fūsa (Adamantine Sealing Chains)**

Suddenly, a barrage of golden chakra chains shot from Kushina's back and restrained the Nine-tails, creating a barrier around them. It completely pinned the fox down with several spikes at the end of the chains.

"I will take the Kyuubi with me…to my grave. His interference will be delayed till he emerges again." Said Kushina as she looked up to see Minato's face, tears in their eyes. "Thank you…for everything, Minato-kun."

"Don't say that Kushina!" said Minato as he hugged his wife. "You are everything to me. I am useless without you. Don't say that."

"Our child is born today, Minato. No matter how much we try right now, I can't save myself." Cried Kushina. "My only regret will be that I won't be able to see my child grow up."

Wiping his tears, Minato stood up. He walked up in between Kushina and Kyuubi. "Kushina, save up your energy, I am going to seal away half of Kyuubi's chakra using **Shiki Fūjin (Dead Demon Consuming Seal)**."

"No Minato! You will die!" cried Kushina, as she held Naruto closer to her bosom.

"It is the only wise decision, Kushina. If Kyuubi re-emerges after few years with no jinchūriki to hold him, the balance of power will upset. I can seal the half of its chakra within me forever."

"And the other half Minato? What about it?" asked Kushina, fearing the worst? Minato thought about his sensei, Jiraiya's words about the 'Child of prophecy', who will bring peace over this war-ridden world.

"I…I'm going to seal it inside Naruto using **Hakke no Fūin Shiki (Eight Trigrams sealing style), **making him a jinchūriki." Declared Minato.

"Why Minato?" cried Kushina.

"Because I believe in my son. Today, I came across two facts. First, the masked man will be a huge catastrophe to this world and second, our child will stop him and become the 'Child of prophecy'." Answered Minato.

"I know, you don't want our son to bear such a burden. But let's believe in him" said Minato as he performed hand signs to summon the Shinigami (Death God) to perform **Shiki Fūjin**.

"Why are you sacrificing our son for the village and country? You know what kind of future he will have after the people come to know about him being a jinchūriki. He might start hating us for such reasons." Countered Kushina, not accepting Minato's decision.

"To forsake one's country and one's village is same as forsaking one's child. And besides, we are ninjas. We endure and live. Let's believe in him." Said Minato as Shinigami's hand passed through Minato to catch Kyuubi's chakra.

"Oh no! Don't tell me you are sealing me again, Fourth Hokage!" Said Kyuubi in loud growling.

Shinigami ripped Kyuubi's Yin chakra and pulled it, sealing it inside Minato. "Too heavy! My body is going numb." Minato mumbled as a seal formed over his stomach. Though Kyuubi shrank in size, it was still big enough to compete with other tailed beasts. The chakra chains around him loosened up as well.

Minato walked towards Kushina and slammed his hands on the ground to summon the sealing platform. He took Naruto from her hands and placed him on the ritual altar. 'I don't want to be sealed again. Nevertheless, in a baby!' thought Kyuubi as it retracted its claws to attack Naruto.

Before the claw could reach to harm Naruto, Minato and Kushina stood in its way and took the attack, piercing through their stomach.

Hiruzen, Jiraiya, Tsunade and few ANBU arrived at that scene. They all tried to reach to the couple but failed due to the barrier erected by Kushina's chains.

"Minato! Kushina!" screamed Tsunade. The pain and memories of losing a family member came back to her as she tried to bang her way through the barrier. Jiraiya and Hiruzen held her back and tried to console her. As much as they wanted to reach to them, they knew they cannot do much.

"Kushina, I am going to place the seal. If you want to say something, now is the time." Cried Minato with teary eyes.

Kushina nodded and looked at her baby. "Eat good and grow strong. Bathe every day and don't stay up late. Make good friends and find someone who loves you with all her heart. Respect your elders and teachers at the academy. You may be good at something and not so good at the other and that's ok. Be careful about the three probations of ninjas. Be wary of Master Jiraiya and Tsunade-nee." Kushina said. After listing to it, the rest couldn't help but chuckle.

"We are sorry, Naruto. But there will be very painful times ahead for you and we are doing nothing but increasing your problems." Said Kushina sadly as tears rolled down her face. "But you are our son and we believe in you. Take care of yourself."

"Sandaime-dono, I am sealing Kyuubi inside my son. As my mother had asked for a favor, I am asking for one too. Please don't tell him about his parents before you see the right time. Because of the enemies I created during my lifetime, my son's life could be in danger. He is a hero for protecting this village and should be known as such." Said the Fourth Hokage, giving his last orders. "Tsunade, Jiraiya, you both are my son's godparents. He is the last of Senju and Uzumaki. Take care for him." The three only nodded, trying to hold their tears back.

"We take our leave then." Smiled Minato as he looked down at his son and formed some hand signs. 'I love you, Naruto. Take care.'

**Fūinjutsu: Hakke no Fūin Shiki.**


	3. Turn of the Tide

**Senju Naruto- The Rise of a Hero**

**Chapter 3 – Turn of the tide**

**Inspired by 'The Hope of the Senju Clan' by Aragon Potter**

"…"–talking

'…'-thinking

""**-demon/Jutsu**

**Naruto does not belong to me.**

-0-

The Third Hokage was sitting in his office and was silently cursing all the paperwork that laid in front of him. Office work had been hard for his old heart these past few years. When Minato sacrificed himself and his family for the good of the village three years ago, the Fire Daimyō had reinstated Hiruzen back on the job as the Hokage of Konoha. It wasn't that he didn't like it but he saw that he should retire and pass on the 'Will of Fire' to the younger generation. But his own students didn't want to stay in Konoha as it brought back bad memories, especially the Kyuubi incident and post-incident outcomes.

-0-

_Flashback_

_Five days had passed since Konoha's favorite Hokage passed away saving the village from the attack of Nine-tailed beast, Kyuubi. 58 ninjas died and 72 were injured with the destruction of one-third of Konoha. Due to emergency state that day, there was no loss of the lives of Konoha civilians. But the economy of Konoha was deeply wounded. Many were left homeless and many businesses were destroyed by the attacks of Kyuubi, bringing several Konoha citizens to streets._

_Mass ceremony was conducted to honor who died saving the lives of many. Ninjas and civilians alike were wearing black clothes and gathered up in training ground: 7, where ceremony was to be conducted. Many clan heads and important businessmen were also present for the ceremony. After everybody stood up and held few minutes of silence in the remembrance of martyrs who laid their lives for the better of the village, the Third Hokage carrying a small bundle went up the podium to address the gathering._

"_Ladies and gentlemen! I would just like to say a few words." Said the Hokage with voice filled with regret. "We lost a lot of our young and budding shinobis (Ninja) when the Kyuubi attacked 5 days ago. Ninja life is hard, I won't deny it. But we should respect the fact that those ninjas laid their lives for the protection of this village. They laid their lives to set an example so that the newer generation should work hard and try to become strong pillars of support to Konoha and carry on the 'Will of Fire'. We should be proud of this fact. Our own Fourth Hokage and his wife sacrificed themselves in defeating the Kyuubi and sealing it in this little baby so that the village should remain safe. He hoped that this kid should be declared a hero for the burden he carried at such a small age." Said the Hokage as he showed the face of the baby to the villagers. But instead of clapping or appreciation, the old Kage could sense the feeling of anger and hatred from the faces of the people gathered, filling the air with silence and tension._

'_Their wounds are still green from the loss of their loved ones.' Thought the Hokage._

_After a minute, someone random in the crowd shouted, "Kill the demon kid!"_

_Soon, a barrage of cursing and shouting filled the area._

"_Kill the fox!"_

"_My husband died because of him, he shouldn't live!"_

"_My 10 years of business is nothing but dust because of him. I say we should kill him."_

"_He might kill us and our children too! He shouldn't live any longer!"_

"_The demon will corrupt his mind!"_

"_REVENGE!"_

_That did it. The old Hokage had enough of this. He released an impressive amount of KI (Killing Intent) to shut all the people present at the ceremony, ninjas and civilians alike. "You all should be ashamed of yourself! You are blatantly disrespecting the Fourth Hokage's last wish and spitting on his sacrifice. I am ashamed of being a leader of such village. The Fourth must be rolling in his grave." Said the old Hokage with a scowl. The people around him lowered their heads but Hiruzen could still sense feelings of revenge in them. He had to stop it before it get out of control._

"_Because of such behaviour, I declare that if anyone ever speaks out or even mention about the Kyuubi jinchūriki, especially telling about him to the younger generation, they would be charged with treason and would be executed without trail. This is an S class secret now." Declared the Hokage as he made his way out of the crowd and dismissed the gathering._

_-0-_

_Soon after he left from the ceremony, he made for his office and called in for a council meeting within an hour. He also asked his ANBU to ask Jiraiya and Tsunade to compulsorily attend this meeting. Within an hour, the Council Room was brimming with Clan heads and Civilian Council members, along with the elders Homura, Koharu and Danzō._

_The Third Hokage made his way towards the council room with his two students, Jiraiya and Tsunade, walking behind him. Entering the room, he quickly made his way towards the head of the table with Jiraiya and Tsunade sitting right behind him in their special chairs. The clan heads were sitting on the right of Hiruzen and the civilian council members was sitting on the left of council. Homura and Koharu were sitting on the ends of both sides of the table with Danzō, who was sitting directly opposite of Hiruzen. The old Hokage also knew that the ANBU commander, Dragon, was silently hiding inside the room._

"_Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. Today's meeting is called to discuss about the future of Uzumaki Naruto. Since we don't know about his parents or any living relatives." Said The Third. He could see many council members, mostly the civilians, had scowl on their faces. Tsunade was having had time accepting her brother's last wish of not telling anyone about Naruto's lineage._

_One civilian who couldn't control his anger stood up. "What about him? He is a demon, and s…Uff!" before he could finish the sentence, he was sent crashing down the wall by one of Tsunade's chakra powered punch, leaving a hole._

"_My brother named him a hero of this village before he died in front of my eyes. If anybody dare call him a demon, I will rip off their tongues in most painful way possible." Shouted Tsunade to get her point across the room once and for all. Nobody blamed her for using violence in the council room._

"_Thank you Tsunade." Continued the Hokage. "As I said before, this meeting is called to discuss about the future of Uzumaki Naruto. He is an orphan and being an Uzumaki, Minato decided to make him a jinchūriki. Now is there anybody or any clan member in the council room who would like to adopt him?" asked Hiruzen. As he looked across the table, the clan heads of Aburame Clan, Aburame Shibi, and Inuzuka Clan, Inuzuka Tsume raised their hands. Before the Hokage could continue, Uchiha Fugaku, head of Uchiha clan stood up and firmly raised his opinion, "Apologies, Hokage-sama. But I don't think a clan should be allowed to adopt a jinchūriki as that would shift the balance of power across the clans in the village." Many in the room nodded their heads. The Third couldn't even argue with that point as it was valid._

"_That is right. But I really wanted Naruto to have a good home." Countered The Third. Even if he wanted to show his dominance, he cannot force some clan or family to adopt and love Naruto._

"_Alright let's have a vote then. How many do you think Uzumaki Naruto shouldn't be adopted by any clan?" asked Koharu. All the members, excluding the Aburame and Inuzuka Clan head and the Third, raised their hands. Tsunade and Jiraiya could do nothing but clench their fists as they were not the official members of the council. Tsunade, being the only living member of Senju Clan, had lost her official seat in Konoha's Council._

"_So the vote has been passed in agreement that Uzumaki Naruto will not be adopted by any Clan in the village." Declared Homura. The Third could do nothing but lower his head in shame for not fulfilling a promise. With Naruto's family status kept incognito and given the Uzumaki family name, Tsunade couldn't adopt Naruto as she is not 'officially' her godmother. And with Jiraiya mostly outside the village, the council wouldn't allow him to take Naruto outside the village._

'_I am sorry my friend. I have broken your promise.' Sighed Hiruzen._

"_Why don't you give me the care of Uzumaki Naruto? I will train him under Konoha 'Ne' (Root) Foundation and train him as one of the best shinobi of Konoha." Said Danzō. Even though he didn't have one arm and an eye, he carried himself with composure and radiated power. The 'Darkness of shinobi' was well liked by the civil council members because he acted in village's best interests, even if by doing unsanctioned deeds._

"_No! I will not allow it. He will not be converted into one of your dummies, Danzō." Said Hiruzen, his anger itching to ooze out. He glared at Danzō but he didn't even flinch._

"_What I am doing is for the betterment of Konoha. You may not like my work but I bring results. I protect the village from its roots so that we are not harmed." Replied Danzō with a firm voice. The Third couldn't argue with Danzō as it was him and Root that did the darkest of missions to secure Konoha._

"_I think Danzō-san is right. The boy should be under his care so that he could be a beneficial shinobi for Konoha." Said Kurama Murakumo, head of Kurama clan._

"_What do you say, Shikaku-san?" asked Hiruzen from his advisor, Nara Shikaku, head of Nara clan._

"_I think that Uzumaki Naruto should not be admitted into Root. He is just a child and needs a normal life." Replied Shikaku, much to the happiness of Hiruzen and his students and dismay of rest of the council. But he wasn't done yet._

"_But I agree with Danzō-san point too." Continued Shikaku, stunning the Third._

"_Let's just say this, Naruto shall live a normal shinobi life. But if he starts using Biju's (Tailed-Beast) chakra before he becomes an official Konohagakure shinobi and hurts somebody, he shall immediately be transferred under Danzō-san Root program for a period of 10 years." Concluded Shikaku._

_Most of the people nodded to the opinion of the Hokage's tactician. It made sense and even protected the village if necessary. Hiruzen and his students could disagree with such a plan. If Naruto did start using his Biju's before becoming a ninja, he would have to be contained nevertheless. Plus, Naruto still had a chance of leading a normal shinobi life. But somewhere in their hearts, they didn't want him near Shimura Danzō._

"_How many of you agree with Shikaku-san's opinion?" asked Koharu. Everyone except the Third raised their hands. _

_The decision was passed unanimously._

_Flashback Over!_

-0-

Three years have passed since that council meeting and Naruto had been placed in an orphanage as no civil family wanted to adopt him. Not able to stand the decision of the council, Tsunade left Konoha with Shizune in pursuit of other goals and Jiraiya left to continue his spy missions. So, Hiruzen had made a habit to visit Naruto at least once a month. Naruto would call him as 'Jiji'. He spoke with him friendly and would often tell him stories of the orphanage, even if most of them were a bit exaggerated.

But Hiruzen knew that most of these stories were fake as he had placed an ANBU around him that noted his daily activities and reported him back. Naruto always looked sickly to him and was a bit shorter than most three years old kids. The ANBU would also tell him that he was alone at the orphanage as nobody wanted to befriend him on matron's orders. Many would bully him but he will take in each and everything silently. He would be left scratched and sore by the end of the day but by next morning, all his wounds would heal fully. He knew that he had put a cheerful demeanor to hide his true feelings around other people.

But there were some surprises too for the old Hokage. Naruto would easily find the ANBU trailing him every day and somehow tell them how they feel even when the mask hid their facial expressions, much like Uzumaki Mito. The Kage even tried to change the ANBU ninjas but to his surprise, Naruto could exactly pinpoint them but won't say much. The old Hokage figured it to be one of the traits acquired from the Kyuubi.

-0-

Naruto was sitting on a swing which hung from a tree outside the orphanage. Today was his third birthday and nobody came to wish him. The children living along him in the orphanage didn't talk to him much. The matron treated him badly and didn't even give him proper food to eat. He would go out of the orphanage in search of food inside trash bins and cans. The only thing he liked when his Jiji would come to visit him. But for some reason, he too didn't show up today to wish him.

Naruto also had a bad feeling in his gut that something bad may happen today and it would be worse than the usual beatings he got. Also he couldn't sense the animal-faced people around who usually followed him around but didn't do much. He at least felt a bit safe around them, content with feeling that somebody was always watching over him. But now, he was scared.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHH! HELP ME!"

Naruto turned his head towards the direction of the scream. It sounded like voice of some kid asking for urgent help. He quickly hopped off the swing and ran towards the source of the noise. As he neared the matron's office, from where he heard the scream, he hid behind the wall near the door and peeped inside the room. He saw a cloaked figure and the matron holding a purple haired kid, who was trying to break free of the grasp and shouting for help. He recognized the kid, his name was Shin and was a year older than Naruto. He wore a pale yellow shirt together with a pair of dark brown pants.

The matron was in her late forties. She wore black nun dress with white bandana, which had Konoha's symbol on it. The masked man wore a black cloak with the bear shaped mask. He didn't look like familiar like the other animal faced people he usually met. He also couldn't sense any emotional feeling from him, neither anger nor sadness. He also carried a blade with him which was smaller than he usually saw.

Deciding to help Shin, Naruto stepped in the office and called out for the matron.

"Matron-sama" said Naruto, not forgetting the beatings he got for not using honorifics while addressing her. "What are you doing with Shin-san? And who is this masked man?" he asked, as politely as possible.

The matron cursed seeing Naruto's face. "What are you doing here, demon brat? Don't you have anything better to do than poking in others business."

"But ma'am, Shin-san is asking for help. I came to check what was wrong with him." Replied Naruto, his head lowered.

The matron had enough with the demon brat and his questions. She had lost her husband in Kyuubi attack when it attacked the orphanage building, crushing him inside. Today she was going to avenge her husband by killing the demon. She rushed to Naruto and took out a knife to stab Naruto.

"You are going to die today, demon brat. You hear me! You killed my husband and today I am going to kill you." She called out as she backed up her knife to stab him. Naruto wanted to back away and run out of the office as fast as he can but fear had completely frozen his body, rendering him unable to move.

**STAB.**

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

The knife was lodged deep inside Naruto's stomach. The pain was unbearable, he tried to wriggle away but couldn't do it. He felt like falling and quick caught Matron's dress around her collar with his right hand.

'Am I going to die today?'

As his consciousness was slowly slipping away, he heard a voice deep inside his head.

"**Kill her!"**

"W-What? Who's there?"

"**I said KILL HER!"**

Naruto suddenly felt a sudden flow of energy inside his body. It felt dark, almost devouring him in it. His found himself losing to this dark energy.

As matron was laughing loudly on killing the demon herself, she felt a sudden bloodlust and killing intent around her, almost choking her. The clocked figure also turned to see the source of inhuman bloodlust. Shin, who was tired of shouting, collapsed on the floor unconscious.

The matron tried to free herself from Naruto's grasp around her collar but failed to do so. When Naruto opened his eyes, she almost felt that she was standing before the gates of Hell. Naruto's deep blue eyes were replaced by blood red ones with slit pupils. His blond hair became pointier, his whiskers became longer and more defined. She could feel the nails on his hands growing. She felt like a prey to this demon predator.

"What are you? Leave me you demon." She cursed as she tried to break free from his grasp.

"W-Why? Why do you hate me? Why do everyone hate me? What have I done? Hu**h! Tell me! What have I DONE?**" Naruto cried as his voice became more animalistic.

"**I don't deserve it. You deserve it. You need to die. YOU NEED TO DIE!**"

Suddenly, many wooden spikes emerged around Naruto's hand impaling the women all around her upper body, lifting her feet off the ground, killing her immediately. All her blood sprayed on Naruto as her arteries imploded. He removed his hand from her neck as he turned to face the masked man. The man was too stumped to do anything. Before he could think of either fight or flight, Naruto was in front of him placing a powerful punch in his stomach. He went flying through the office walls and landed right outside the orphanage.

"**You were with matron-sama right. You need to DIE TOO!"**

Seeing Naruto charging at him, the masked man quickly regained his bearing and used **Shunshin** to flee from the sight to give the report to his leader, Shimura Danzō. As Naruto couldn't find his next prey, the energy began to leave his body, rendering him unconscious.

-0-

"So he is a Senju, huh." Concluded Danzō as he listened to the report given to him by his subordinate about the recent occurring with Uzumaki Naruto, or Senju Naruto.

"That is what I believe, Danzō-sama." Said the same masked subordinate of Danzō that was at the orphanage.

"So the legacy of The Fourth Hokage and Senju Clan lives. And the only Senju after the First Hokage to use Mokuton (Wood Release). That is a very interesting development." Said Danzō, a smirk on his usual stoic face.

"Now that he has used the Biju Chakra, nobody can stop me from taking him in. he must be trained for the betterment of Konoha." Said Danzō as he clapped his hands twice. Two more cloaked figures from shadows emerged in front of Danzō, bowing to him.

"You have to go to the orphanage and remove any evidence of Naruto using Mokuton. Nobody else should come to know about it. Any loose ends are to be dealt with immediately." Ordered Danzō, as his subordinates nodded and **shunshin **away.

'He will become my weapon and help me become the leader of the village and soon the entire Elemental Continent as I always wanted…' thought Danzō as he slowly disappeared in the darkness.

-0-

Three days later

Naruto slowly woke up to the pungent smell of chemicals and disinfectants. He opened his eyes groggily and welcomed by the sight of pure white roof. Not knowing where he was, he tried to turn but sudden pain shot in his chest.

"Aaaahhh!" cried Naruto.

"Don't move, Naruto. You are hurt." A familiar sound called out to him. Naruto slowly turned his neck to find the Third Hokage sitting next to his bed, looking intently at him.

"Jiji…where am I?" asked Naruto, his throat parched. The old Kage passed a glass of water to Naruto to drink.

"You are in the hospital Naruto. You were hurt badly so you had to be brought here." Answered Hiruzen. "Say, do you remember what happened in the orphanage?" asked the Hokage.

"I…I don't remember much. There was somebody with the Matron-sama's room and they were doing something to Shin-san. I asked them what are they doing but instead of telling me, she took out a knife and … stabbed me." Cried Naruto, remembering the scene. Hiruzen lowered his head in shame, blaming himself of his surrogate grandson's such condition.

"After that I heard a voice in my head, telling me about killing her. I don't know what happened after that. Do you know anything, Jiji?" asked Naruto.

'So he did use the Biju Chakra. Shit, Danzō was right about it. I cannot stop him from taking Naruto now. At least I can take away the burden of killing somebody from Naruto. He is too young for it. Tsunade and Jiraiya will kill me now.' Thought Hiruzen, as he cursed himself again and again inside his head.

"Yes Naruto. I have put the Matron in jail for putting your life at risk. Also, I have found someone else to take care of you. He…" before Hiruzen could finish, the door of the room opened, interrupting him. Naruto saw a man as old as Jiji, with his right arm and face bandaged, walking inside using a stick. Naruto could sense pride, experience and darkness in him, scaring him a bit.

"Hello Naruto. I am Shimura Danzō and I will be your new caretaker."


	4. To Hell

**Senju Naruto- The Rise of a Hero**

**Chapter 4 – To Hell...**

**Inspired by 'The Hope of the Senju Clan' by Aragon Potter**

"…"–talking

'…'-thinking

""**-demon/Jutsu**

**Naruto does not belong to me.**

-0-

**Ten years after the orphanage incident. At Rebel Camp, Kiri Civil War.**

It had been two hours since his arrival at the camp. But 'patience is a virtue' and he was quite good at waiting.

The guard at the gate was looking at him quizzically. He was wearing standard Kirigakure shinobi suit. Based on his green flank jacket, he was probably a Chūnin. The constant war had sharpened his shinobi senses, but a bit of curiosity still reflected in guard's eyes.

According to the mission statement, Kirigakure had been under constant war since the Fourth Mizukage came to rule. Corruption became a plague. It had bled its resources and the superior had become power hungry. When the Fourth Mizukage, Yagura, came to power five years ago, he suddenly declared war on all the bloodline users for unknown reasons. The hidden village of mist was chaotic. Many bloodline users lost their lives. Soon after, the bloodline users formed the rebel army to oppose the Mizukage's actions and end this war. But it had been too long and damage too severe.

His orders were simple- 'Go to Kiri, stop the war, form alliance between Konoha and Kiri.'

And Naruto aka 'Tendou' was going to do just that.

-0-

**Same time, Konohagakure**

Smoking pipe in mouth, Hiruzen Sarutobi was silently admiring the village through his office window. It had been around 13 years since his successor died and he re-claimed the post of Hokage. One could easily see his age creeping up on his old bones but his knowledge, experience and power were still second to none.

The door of his office opened and a figure walked in, tap of wooden stick on floor distinctively audible as the figure moved towards the chair across the table. There was a tense silence before the Hokage sighed and turned to face his friend and rival, Shimura Danzō.

"Old age is creeping on us Danzō." Said Hiruzen.

"Indeed. But it has also made us wiser, Hiruzen." nodded Danzō.

"That's true. I want to pass on the baton to the younger generation now."

"As I remember, you already did that once. And it was handed back to you. Those who are strong enough don't want to _return_ to the village now and I don't want our village position to deteriorate." Retorted Danzō. Hiruzen sighed. He knew that his friend was talking about his three students. One turned out to be a traitor, second left due to loss of family and third left due to the loss of his student, the Fourth Hokage.

Silence hung heavy in the room. Before it stretched out, Hiruzen spoke up.

"How is he?"

"Who? Naruto?" asked Danzō.

"Yes, Naruto. If you remember, his tenth year with you is about to end. It is about time he joins my command." Danzō could sense a bit of anxiety in his rival's hardened voice and decided to take out the main guns.

"When were you going to tell me that he is a Senju and Yondaime's son?" asked Danzō abruptly.

Hiruzen's face lost its colour for a moment before he regained his senses and glared at Danzō, "Who told you about it?"

Danzō almost laughed. "Seriously Hiruzen. You think you can hide things like these from me! For your information, nobody told me. His skills and blood speaks for himself."

"What do you mean?" asked the Hokage, keeping his glare leveled.

"Actually, he is the best I have." Said Danzō.

"What? He is only 13."

"You know better Hiruzen that age doesn't matter in respect of skills. You looked at Uchiha Itachi. He was a Chūnin by 10. And an ANBU captain by 13. And Kakashi, he was chūnin at 6 after graduating at 5." Danzō continued shaking his head, "I have never seen a prodigy of this level before, Hiruzen. A leader, natural in shinobi arts and a superb sensor. He absorbs everything like a sponge."

Hiruzen was stunned but he wanted to know more, so he kept his straight face. "Break down his prowess and skills to me, Danzō. I want to know where he stands."

"His personality matches Tobirama-sensei. A quick and pragmatic thinker. His chakra is as dense as the First Hokage. An all-round fighter. His strength lies in his stamina, Ninjutsu, Kenjutsu, has moderate skills in Taijutsu. He has advance chakra control and shows keen interest in Fūinjutsu. He can give you a run for your money."

"That's quite a healthy repertoire at such a young age. What about nature affinities?" asked Hiruzen?

Danzō thought about it before replying. "He has three natural affinities. Very high _Doton _(Earth) and _Suiton _(Water) and low _Futon _(Wind) affinity."

Hiruzen was stumped but controlled his emotions. That was too much for a young boy. "Explain 'very high', Danzō?"

"His mastery in Earth manipulation is similar to that of sensei's water manipulation. He can perform various A-level _Doton _techniques using just a single hand seal and can form rock solid walls while standing on a deep water source. Last year, he even started extracting metals from deep down using Earth Manipulation." Danzō could easily see emotions running on Sarutobi's straight face and couldn't help but smirk inside.

"This is nothing! Best of all, he is a natural _Mokuton _(Wood Release) user. He is a perfect Senju of the forest!" exclaimed Danzō.

The Hokage was literally perplexed now and Danzō was enjoying every moment of it. It was always implied that the _Mokuton_ Release was just a genetic trait which was lost along with the First Hokage, Senju Hashirama. But a second _Mokuton _user just disapproved the hypothesis.

"Why the hell didn't you tell me that before?" asked the Hokage.

"Because I didn't want the world to know that we have a natural _Mokuton _user in our forces. He would have become a target of many. I have ordered him not to use it anywhere unless the situation demands it." Hiruzen settled down a bit after hearing that. Everyone wants the power to control _Biju _(Tailed Beasts). Though he wanted to know that fact beforehand, he agreed with Danzō's thinking. Before Hokage could speak, Danzō again spoke up.

"But there is a problem. Root isn't a good place for social interactions. Even though I didn't put him through any emotional or social conditioning, he isn't very social." Hiruzen knew about the mental conditioning practiced in Root. Though he was very much against it, he couldn't help but agree that some missions require such conditioning.

"He is okay with teamwork during a mission. But he doesn't socialize well outside the mission. So if you are planning to put him in team, and don't even think about making him genin, you have to be careful." Concluded Danzō.

"Hmm. I will think about that. So where is he now?" asked Hiruzen, scratching his beard.

"I had sent him to Fire Daimyo two years ago, after your son Asuma came back. He is one of the _Shugonin Jūnishi_ (Twelve Guardian Ninja), the youngest ever. His contract will be ending this year before the academy graduation in two months." Answered Danzō, as he internally cherished the reaction on his rival's gaping face. He got up and turned to walk out of the door.

"I'll send him to you when he returns. He is strong, Hiruzen and capable enough to defend himself and the village. He is like a son I never had. Don't deny him his birthright when he returns." Said Danzō as he walked out of the office.

-0-

Terumi Mei, the leader of the rebels and her second-in-command, Ao were sitting in the command centre at the main rebel camp. Mei was a beautiful woman in her thirties. With her green eyes, long auburn hair and blue dress showing a bit of her bust, she easily enticed men's hearts. Whereas Ao had a stern look to complement with moussed-up blue hair and patch covered right eye. They were discussing some future strategies when a chūnin bust through the door.

"What is it, chūnin? Why didn't you ask for the permission to enter first?" chided Ao with stern look on his visible blue left eye.

"I apologize Ao-sama. But I have an important news that you and Mei-sama would want to hear. An emissary from Konoha is here at the gates." Said the chūnin as he kept his eyes on the floor.

The news straightened up the commanders in the room. They had earlier received the news from the Water Daimyo, who was secretly helping the rebels to gain victory over Yagura's tyranny on Kirigakure, about his request to his friend, the Fire Daimyo, to help the rebels to gain an edge in the war. Though it was a blow to the pride of Kiri shinobis for asking help from outside to sort out their homeland conflicts but with the war stuck in a stalemate, any help was welcome.

"How many have come?" asked Mei.

"Only one, Mei-sama."

"One?" inquired Mei. Both she and Ao were in deep thought why there was only one person from Konoha to help. 'He might be just a messenger.' They both concluded.

"Yes, Mei-sama. Should I send him in?" asked the chūnin messenger.

"Hai! Send him in." The messenger quickly bowed and left to fetch the guest from Konoha.

Soon after, a young cloaked figure walked in the command tent, tailed by two Kiri chūnin. He was around 5 feet tall, wore a plain black face mask over the nose and lower-half of the face. He had sparkling blue slit eyes, a mop of long spiky blonde hair tied up in a small ponytail on the back of his head. He wore a greyish cloak on top, black ANBU pants and steel-toe boots. Despite of a young figure, he looked like a dignified and experienced ninja.

"Welcome to Water country, Konoha shinobi. I am Terumi Mei, commander of Rebel Army. May I ask you the reason for your visit?" asked Mei.

The figure bowed his head a bit before speaking in a deep and clear tone, "Greetings Mei-sama. I have come here on the request of Fire Daimyo to help your army gain a win over the Fourth Mizukage's forces and end the war."

"I am grateful for Fire Country's help in stopping this needless war. May I ask where your team is or are you just a messenger." Said Mei.

"I am the only one here to help you from Fire country. I am also acting as a messenger between you and the Fire daimyo." Said the figure with no emotion in its voice.

'They sent us a kid to stop a war! A single kid! Damn Konoha and Fire Country! How dare they do this!' thought the livid Kiri rebels.

The chūnin guards and Ao quickly went for their kunai pouches as the figure's right hand went inside his cloak to take out a scroll. He extended the scroll towards Mei before Ao got hold of it. He opened laid it on the table and saw a storage seal on it. He slammed his right hand on it and channeled the chakra and a smaller scroll with Fire Country symbol poofed out of it. Ao tried to open it but saw a blood seal on it.

"Let me help you, Ao-san!" said the figure extending his right hand. A shocked look was clearly visible on Ao's face.

"How do you know my name Gaki?" asked Ao.

"When I was sitting near the gates, the guards kept talking and giggling to themselves about someone called Mei and Ao. Though I couldn't hear them, I am good at reading lips." Replied the cloaked figure, unnerved by the 'Gaki' comment. The chūnin guards' faces were red with fear and shame.

"And what were they talking about?" asked Mei, eyeing the guards behind.

"Most of them were about the sexual interactions between you two." replied the masked boy, his voice emotionless as ever, without a glint of snickering as if he was just stating a fact. The chūnin guards just wanted to squeeze his throat to death but they could see their deaths in Ao's eyes. Mei just stood there silently for few before she started laughing. 'That was good! I needed that!' she thought.

"You two have some explaining to do after we are done with this, chūnins!" ordered Ao, his teeth clenched hard, as handed the blood scroll back to Naruto. Naruto bit his thumb a bit and let the trickle of blood flow on the seal. It glowed a bit before the scroll opened with a click.

"That was a blood seal I designed using my blood. It was to make sure that the scroll doesn't fall in the wrong hands." Explained Naruto, as he handed the scroll back to Ao. He didn't read it as it was his commander's job and handed it further down to Mei. She opened the scroll and quickly read through the details. Closing her eyes, she weighed down the pros and cons of the agreement given in the scroll. She opened her eyes, which had a glint of acceptance and handed the scroll to Ao for him to go in the details and give any possible suggestions. He looked at Mei and gave her a slight nod, adding his acceptance.

"Before we accept this offer," Mei spoke, "What is your name and please remove your mask. I want to see who I am working with."

"I cannot share my real name with you but you can call me Tendou." Replied Tendou. The Rebel commander looked into those blue eyes before replying, "It's alright Tendou. Now please remove your mask."

The messenger nodded and removed his black mask. Beneath it, the Kiri Rebel leaders saw a face of a kid hardened with the course of timed. Round face with no baby fat along with mystifying deep blue eyes with slit-like pupils betrayed no emotions and it unnerved them a bit. But the most prominent feature was three whiskers on his cheeks. Mei thought they looked cute but Ao saw a beast ready to kill without a moment of hesitation.

Signing the message scroll, Mei spoke up, "Tendou, we agree with the terms and conditions given by the Fire Daimyo and won't publically name Konoha or Fire Country as our ally till we have our victory over Yagura's army. Though we had thought of getting teams from Konoha instead of only one man, if you can prove yourself worthy in the oncoming days, I will happy to pay you an S-rank mission pay. You will be working directly under Ao's command and take orders from him. Show us what a Konoha shinobi is capable of."

"Hai! You won't be disappointed." Saluted Tendou.

-0-

A month has passed since the help from Konoha arrived and Kiri rebels have never been happier. Except for commanders and the two chūnin guards who swore to secrecy, nobody knew the help from Konoha arrived. Tendou was given Kiri shinobi clothes to mix up better and to avoid doubts. Plus, he was given an ANBU mask to avoid unnecessary questions from other shinobi in camps.

Team Ao, led by Ao and consisted of Chōjūrō (wielder of _Hiramekarei_, one of the famous Seven Swords of the Mist), Hozūki Tengetsu and an ANBU called Tendou, had become quite popular within a month across the Water Country. Every mission or raid they conducted, they came back successfully completing them and bringing the rebels closer to their victory.

Mei was extremely happy today. In team Ao's last raid at one of Yagura's army camp, they came across the Intel that Mizukage along with his 50 strong Jounin-level shinobi is going to cross Water Country's border to meet up with Raikage and discuss a possible alliance to help them with the rebels. This was a chance to end the war once and for all. Yagura had closed himself within the walls of the village was finally coming out and this was a perfect opportunity to take him down.

The help from Konoha was more beneficial then she thought. Tendou was a hero in her eyes, a perfect shinobi, even though his individual achievements were never publically announced and were often declared as team effort. Any type of mission, whether it be a raid, Intel gathering, assassination, interrogation, he could do anything. Give him mission details and forget about it because he would accomplish it within the provided time limit.

But he also scared her. She had passed through the Kiri's bloody academy system and killed her friends at the age of nine even then Tendou scared her. She and Ao often wondered what kind of hellish training he underwent to become a perfect shinobi. In a mission, he would properly interact with everybody, give help and tips in Kenjutsu and Water Element to Chōjūrō and Tengetsu, discuss his plans with Ao and even report properly to Mei. But as soon as the mission is gets over, he's gone. Not even her best trackers could track her. He had just given seals to her and Ao. He would appear in front of them within 5 seconds after they channel their chakra in them. He was an unsolved mystery which got complicated every passing day.

Pushing those thoughts aside, she entered the command centre to discuss plans to ambush and kill Yagura. Inside, she saw her three lieutenants, Ao, Kurosuki Raiga and Akebino Jinin, waiting for her. Raiga was the member of the Seven Swordsmen of Mist along with Jinin and wielded the thunder sword, _Kiba. _Jinin was the member of both old and new generation of seven swordsmen and wielded the blunt sword, _Kabutowari_.

"Ao, please summon Tendou, his presence and advice is necessary today." Said Mei, as she took her seat at the head of the table. Everybody saw Ao taking out a paper seal and channeling chakra to it and in no more than 5 seconds, there was a loud knock on the door.

"Come in", ordered Mei.

The door opened and a masked _boy_ walked in through the door. He made a formal solute to everyone in the room and silently stood behind Ao. Nobody except two knew the real info about Tendou and it was about to become a major issue in the upcoming meeting.

"Mei-sama, may I ask why a member of Ao's personal team allowed to attend one of our meetings?" asked Raiga. Mei looked at Tendou who didn't look affected a bit by the question, his expression hidden behind his black mask (A/N: Tendou only wore ANBU mask during missions) and his eyes devoid of any emotion. She then looked at Ao, who slightly nodded.

"It is an S-class secret that I am going to tell you today. Tendou here is not from Kiri. He came from Konoha to assist us in the war a month ago." Mei stopped to check the expression on her lieutenants' faces, which was a bit of astonishment but no anger. Satisfied, she continued, "The Water Daimyo had requested his friend, the Fire Daimyo and asked for help to end the war. So he sent Tendou here to assist us. Worry not, he didn't send a single ninja to make fun of us but he believed in his abilities. I believe in his abilities. You know about the achievements of Ao's team recently and now know that Tendou's contribution was a major part of it. He even found the genuine Intel about Yagura's possible treaty with Kumo. Now I want this secret to remain a secret and not spread among our faction like a wildfire after this meeting. As the part of the contract, we are not allowed to connect Konoha with the war till it ends." She concluded adding a bit of killing intent to get her point across.

Raiga and Jinin, who were kept in the dark till know, had their own doubts about Tendou even before the meeting. Being the part of Seven Swordsmen of Kiri, who were the strongest among Kiri shinobi, they often had the knowledge about who was strong in Kiri and Tendou stood out of the rest because of his sudden presence and increasing success rate of missions and raids. Recently, they hadn't heard of a Kiri ANBU being so strong who was just a kid. But that was a question on every Kiri Rebel Commander's mind.

After getting a quick nod from Raiga, swallowing his pride for asking help from outside, Jinin spoke up, "Tendou-san, we appreciate your and your country's help on the noble cause of protecting who aren't guilty. You have our heartfelt thanks for that. I hope the relations between our two countries become stronger after the war."

"You are welcome, Jinin-san, Raiga-san." Replied Tendou, with a bit of appreciation in his voice.

"Now with that aside, I would like to proceed with the meeting." Mei spoke up, getting everybody's attention. "Now according to the Intel found by Ao's team 3 days ago, Yagura with a team of 50 Jounins is going to cross the borders near Mangrove forests at the Kiso river basin in 10 days that is 7 days from now, to reach Kumo and discuss an alliance. And we cannot allow that to happen. So do you guys have any possible plans for ambush?" asked Mei.

As Mei's lieutenants were contemplating the Intel, Tendou raised his hands. According to Ao, Tendou's plans had very high success rate. He thought quickly, he acted accordingly and if something goes wrong, his re-evaluated plans were quite swift and successful too. Wearing a little cheerful smile, Mei spoke up, "Yes Tendou, do you have something in your mind?"

"Hai, Mei-sama. I think that Yagura's team will mostly consist of Jounins that are skilled in guerilla warfare, silent killing and capable of fighting underwater. And the fact that they are planning to do it at midnight further proves my assumptions. There will be good amount of water to perform and sustain _Kirigakure no Jutsu _(Hiding in the Mist technique). And with porous roots of the Mangrove and rising water level at night, it will be easier for them to hide and attack if we ambush from the open. Plus, even though it was recorded 50 ninjas, I think we should assume more and take better backup."

"Damn Tendou! You sure know what you are doing. Don't you?" Raiga said.

"It is because of better tactical warfare done by Konoha shinobi that it has never been successfully seized all these years." Said Ao. "I agree with Tendou's assumptions. Yagura is intelligent and would have already thought about us ambushing him. We have around 800 shinobi in our lines out of which 150 are Jounins. I say we should take 100 shinobi in front lines including 50 Jounins and 50 chūnins and 100 shinobi as a backup including 25 Jounins and 75 chūnin and _Iryonin (_Medic-nin_)._"

"What about Yagura? Who will fight him?" asked Raiga, excited about getting his hands on Yagura.

"Jinin, you will lead the Backup forces. Ao and Raiga can handle the Frontal attacks. And I will fight Yagura." Concluded Mei.

"But Mei-sama, you cannot be serious. Yagura is a jinchūriki and it won't be easy to stop him once he starts using his Biju chakra. We would be fighting him on his domain (A/N: Water) and it could easily destroy our plans. We might even lose you." Reasoned Ao.

"I am a ninja first, Ao. And ninjas die on the field. It's occupational hazard. And it would be an honor. Believe in me." Said Mei, confidence and strength brimming in her voice. But before she could continue her speech, Tendou raised his hand again.

"Yes Tendou, you have something to add." Asked Mei, clearly not glad about someone interrupting her patriotic leader speech.

"Hai Mei-sama." said Tendou, taking out a paper seal which had a complicated seal drawn on it. "This is a Chakra-suppressing seal I was working on after my mission. What it does is it can supress Biju's chakra in the system when applied on Jinchūriki's forehead when they draw its power, thus leaving them fatigued. All you have to do is before it reaches its full form, stick it to their forehead." He said, handing out one paper seal to each commander. There was complete silence in room before Mei stood up, walked closer to Tendou, and hugged him. He tensed a bit but slowly eased up with Mei's ministrations on his back.

"Thank you, Tendou. Thank you very much. You don't know how easy you made things now. You came like blessing on this cursed land. And I cannot thank you enough." Said Mei, slowly backing up, adorning a small, genuine smile.

"You are welcome, Mei-sama. I am happy to help." His face was still straight as ever but his voice had a hint of appreciation in it.

-0-

**7 days later. At Kiso river Basin**

"So you came out Mei." Said Yagura, the Fourth Mizukage. "I knew you would come out. I purposely asked my men to leave such Intel at our camp. I can't believe you took it. Now I have a chance to end the rebels and bloodlines once and for all." He said, taking out his hooked staff.

The assumptions laid by Tendou were almost true. As expected, Yagura had planned it all along and brought out a unit of 100 Jounins with him instead of 50. They were planning on ambushing Rebels, expecting them to be in lower number but were sandwiched by the frontal attacks and backup attacks of the rebels. The guards of Mizukage were having a hard time defending the Mizukage against Raiga's brutal attacks and left him open to Mei and Ao's team.

They saw that despite being an adult, Yagura rather had a child-like experience. He had pink pupil-less eyes and a long stich running down his left cheek.

"Ao, you and your team will stay behind back me up. I will take him on." Mei said as she formed the hand signs.

"**Suiton: Suidan no Jutsu" (Water Release: Water Bullet Technique)**

She expelled a large torrent of water towards Yagura, hitting him right at the chest but he exploded in form of water using a **Mizu Bunshin (Water Clone)**. Mei looked around to see her opponent but couldn't find him. She suddenly sensed chakra being molded above her. She tried to move out of the way of the attack but was a bit late.

"**Suiton: Mizurappa" (Water Release: Water Trumpet Technique)**

"**Futon: Daitoppa"** **(Wind Release: Great Breakthrough)**

Suddenly a great wind picked up and it distorted Yagura's attack on Mei. They both looked on the side and saw Masked Ninja/Tendou blowing the wind.

"Ah! So he is here to. The reports given to me have mentioned an ANBU masked ninja quite a bit. And finally, I got to meet him." Said Yagura, landing on the ground. For some reason, Tendou could sense another chakra source, different from Biju, inside Yagura's body.

To confirm his suspicion, Tendou looked behind at Ao, "Ao-taichou, please use your **Byakugan** on Yagura. I sense a strong genjutsu casted upon him." It stumped everyone, including Yagura himself. Ao quickly activated his **Byakugan** and could sense a third chakra present around Yagura's eyes.

"Yes Tendou. You are right. Mei-sama, Yagura is under very strong optical illusion."

Tendou was in his thoughts now. 'Optical illusion. But only a **Sharingan **user could do that. Then that would mean…'

"UCHIHA" shouted Tendou, "Who are you?" Now everyone's focus was on Yagura, who was standing as rigid as a rock. Suddenly he slacked like a puppet on a rope and started laughing. His voice completely different than his own.

"HAHAHAHA! So I have been caught, and by a kid nonetheless. I might be losing my touch." Said the overridden Yagura. "My plan was going great, Kirigakure no Sato would have been wiped out if you hadn't interfered. I should eliminate you for this." Said Yagura as his Biju chakra began to rile up. He was about to go in his transformation state when Tendou appeared in front of him and pressed the Chakra-supressing seal on Yagura's forehead. Yagura stumbled due to sudden loss of chakra when Tendou unsheathed his wazikashi and chopped Yagura's neck off his body.

A heavy silence washed over the grove as Yagura's head slowly made its way down to the ground. Soon, a loud cheer erupted in the rebel forces as the day they were fighting for had finally arrived. Now peace was not a distant dream for them.

The tyrannous Mizukage was dead.

The Kiri Civil War was over.

-0-

It had been a week since Yagura was killed in action. Across the Water Country, although there were some accidents, the Mizukage's forces surrendered to Rebels as soon as they heard the news about their leader's death. In Kiri, the council members unanimously declared Mei, a dual-bloodline user, as the Fifth Mizukage. She quickly passed the decree to forgive Yagura's shinobi albeit they surrender to her completely.

Tendou was slowly making his way towards the villages' gates. Mei promised to visit Konoha around the next Chūnin exams held in Konoha to discuss details about a possible alliance between Konoha and Kiri. His mission was complete and he had to report back to Fire Daimyo. At the gates, he saw Mei and Ao waiting.

"Going already?" asked Mei.

"Hai, Mizukage-sama. My mission here is complete. I have to report back to Daimyo-sama."

"Why did you reject your mission pay then?" asked Mei.

"Sorry about that, Mizukage-sama. I cannot accept pay for stopping a war in a foreign village started by my village's former shinobi. It's against the ethics and moral code. I hope you accept my services as an apology for what was done to your country indirectly by Konoha." Tendou replied bowing to Mizukage.

"So strong but still so pure. That's what I like about you. Take care of yourself and those close to you." Said Mei, hugging him and kissing his forehead. She broke the contact and after giving a quick nod to both Mei and Ao, Tendou walked out of the gates.

They watched him walk when he stopped suddenly. He stood still for a minute before turning his head back.

"Naruto. That's my name." he said before disappearing using a **Shunshin.**


	5. And Back

**Senju Naruto- The Rise of a Hero**

**Chapter 5– …And Back **

**Inspired by 'The Hope of the Senju Clan' by Aragon Potter**

"…"–talking

'…'-thinking

""**-demon/Jutsu**

**Naruto does not belong to me.**

-0-

Naruto was walking down the dark corridor of Root headquarters. It had been 2 years since he was last here. This was his academy. His home. A place which readily accepted him without asking much questions. Though he had good memories about his time at Daimyo's palace, nothing worked better for him than the secluded corridors of the headquarters.

Up ahead, he could see Danzō's office. He had been his master for 10 years. He had saved Naruto, he had accepted him and gave him shelter, and he had provided him with the skills to take on the world. And for that Naruto had utmost respect for him.

Naruto walked close to the door and knocked in a coded fashion. Each agent in Root had to knock in specific format to identify themselves and Naruto was no different.

"Come in!" came a voice from behind the door. Naruto opened the door and walked in. Behind the desk was Danzō. He still looked calm and composed as Naruto last saw him. Naruto still wasn't completely able to gauze his emotions from his face. But being a skilled sensor, Naruto could see that Danzō was happy to see him. Naruto quickly got on his knee and bowed to Danzō.

"So you are here. Anything to report, Naruto?" asked Danzō, straight to business.

"Hai, Danzō-sama. I have improved my abilities in Taijutsu and Fūinjutsu under Chiriku-san from Fire Temple. He even helped me with meditation which significantly improved my control on Mokuton. There had not been any significant event to report about except one. Two months ago, Daimyo-sama had sent me to Water Country to help the rebels with the war."

"Yes, he contacted me about that ten days ago. I heard that your mission was successful and Kiri has asked to form an alliance with us. You did well, Naruto. So, what observations did you draw from the war?" asked Danzō.

"The war has been indirectly started because of Konoha." Said Naruto and that caught Danzō's attention.

"What makes you say that?"

"In the last ambush attack on Yagura, we came to know that he was under a heavy optical illusion. Since only a **Sharingan** wielder can cast such a genjutsu, I concluded that the war was indirectly led by an Uchiha."

"Who do you have in mind?"

"After the Uchiha Massacre three years ago, there are only two known Uchiha left, Uchiha Itachi and his younger brother Uchiha Sasuke. Since the war had started way before Itachi defected and Sasuke doesn't even have a **Sharingan** yet tells me that there is one more unknown Uchiha out there who is quite powerful to ensnare a perfect Jinchūriki under a genjutsu. And according to history, only Uchiha Madara had that power."

"But he is said to have died while fighting the First Hokage at the Valley of the End. Even if he was somehow alive, he should have died with old age." Said Danzō.

"Hai, Danzō-sama. I too reached at these two contradictory conclusions and it doesn't make sense. There is a powerful, unknown Uchiha about whom we have no knowledge."

"Hmm. Your observations will be duly noted for further investigations." Said Danzō, as he walked closer to Naruto. Slowly he extended his hand towards Naruto.

"Hand over your ANBU mask, Naruto." Without any hesitation, Naruto removed his white ANBU mask and handed it over to Danzō.

"You are the best I have. You served me and Konoha well from the shadows but now it is time for you to step out in the light. Today, Naruto, I relieve you from your services at Root. From now on, you will be reporting directly to the Hokage. Be loyal to him and serve the village well." Said Danzō as he turned his back on him. "You can visit me if you need any help. That's all." Naruto's sensor abilities could pick a bit of sadness in Danzō's chakra. It internally made him happy that his surrogate father cared for him. Standing slowly, he quickly wiped away a lone tear from his right cheek. He could not show emotions now, he was trained not to.

"Hai, Danzō-sama." said Naruto as he vanished away with a **Shunshin.**

-0-

Hiruzen had been quite agitated past two months. Since his meeting with Danzō about Naruto, he was troubled about declaring Naruto's heritage to him and to the world. You cannot just pop an heir of one of the strongest clan in the world out of nowhere. He was asked by Minato to wait till Naruto is at least chūnin. But from the report given by Danzō, Naruto was easily a Jounin level ninja.

'It is time, to hell with what the world thinks.' Thought Hiruzen.

He was sorting out the documents out of an S-class file folder stored in a drawer under his table when he heard a knock on the door.

"Come in" ordered the Hokage, sitting straight in his chair now. The door opened and in entered blond adolescent around 5'4" tall. He wore simple blue outfit with an orange Uzumaki swirl on the back of the shirt and a white sash with a kanji of Fire around his waist, showing he was one of the former guardian of the Fire Daimyo. He wore a wazikashi with red handle on his back. He wore a black face mask like Kakashi on his emotionless face and had piercing blue eyes with slits-like pupils that to Hiruzen felt like searing right through him. His untamed long blonde hair further added ferociousness to the newcomer's untamed look.

"Uzumaki Naruto reporting for duty, Hokage-sama." said Naruto, giving a formal bow to the Third Hokage. Hiruzen internally frowned a bit. Gone was the boy who would lovingly call him Hokage-Jiji and run around him. In front of him was a well-trained shinobi, ready to kill at a single command of his. He hardened himself and replied in the similar 'strict business' fashion as he was addressed.

"Naruto, so you have arrived. I was waiting for you. Danzō had told me that you will report here today. He told me a lot about you and boy I am impressed. Making it to the post of Twelve Ninja Guardians at such a young age is a feat in itself." Said Hiruzen, his grandfatherly side clearly proud.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama!" said Naruto, quickly nodding his head.

"As for your skills now, I already know about your bloodline." Said Hiruzen, trying to gauge Naruto's reaction but not even a twitch of an eyebrow was visible. Sighing he continued, "Please forbid using it in public until necessary. I want that to remain hidden as long as possible." Ordered Hiruzen and got a quick nod in return.

"Now, Danzō has spoken a lot about you and I trust his confidence in you. Unfortunately, I cannot directly promote you to the position of Jounin as it will attract a lot attention. So, by the power vested in me, I hereby promote you to the rank of _Tokubetsu _Jounin (Special Jounin)." Hiruzen declared as he walked closer to Naruto and handed him his green flak jacket.

"Now that you have become a Special Jounin, it's high time for you to learn about your heritage, about your… parents." Said Hiruzen slowly as he extended a sealed letter towards Naruto. Naruto kept on looking at the letter for a minute before holding it, as if trying to gauze its contents. He saw a blood seal under the label of the Fourth Hokage. Biting his thumb, he swiped his blood on the seal, which glowed for few seconds before vanishing. He unfolded the letter and started reading through it.

-0-

_10__th__ October_

_Dear Naruto_

_If you are reading this letter, then I must have died sealing the Kyuubi inside you. I am extremely sorry for pushing down such a huge responsibility on your shoulders but it was necessary to stop the attack and there were no other methods left. But I believe in you, you are my son after all._

_As you would have guessed, my name is Senju Minato, the Fourth Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato. Your mother's name is Senju Uzumaki Kushina. She came to Konoha from Uzushiogakure (Hidden Whirlpool Village) and became the second Jinchūriki after First Hokage's wife and your grand-aunt, Uzumaki Mito. Know that we both deeply loved you since the day we knew Kushina was pregnant with you. We were so happy holding you in our arms the day you were born. We would have been together if that masked man hadn't attacked the village and released the Kyuubi._

_Now, know that the Jinchūriki seal is weakened considerably in women when they are undergoing child birth. That night, a masked man came inside the cave where you were conceived and unsealed the Kyuubi out of Kushina. He had ensnared Kyuubi with an optical genjutsu and unleased him inside of Konoha. I fought him down and was able free the Kyuubi out of his genjutsu. To stop Kyuubi's rampage, I teleported him out of village, where I sealed the Yin-chakra of Kyuubi inside me using __**Shiki Fūjin (Dead Demon Consuming seal)**__ and sealed the Yang-chakra inside you using __**Hakke no Fūin Shiki (Eight Trigram Sealing Style)**__, since your body wasn't developed enough to handle the whole of Kyuubi._

_According to me, a ninja who can outmaneuver the ANBU, slip through a top-scale barrier and could unseal and control the Nine-tailed beast with an optical genjutsu can only be one person, i.e., Uchiha Madara, even if that's possible. So if you ever encounter someone like this in the future, remain at your toes._

_Now with me gone, Tsunade-chan would be handling the issues of the clan. I hope you have good connection with her. Help her and the village to the fullest. And know that your parents always loved you._

_Senju Minato._

-0-

Naruto quickly wiped away a lone tear crawling down his right eye. His parents loved him and didn't abandon him and he felt a huge weight crumbling off his heart. His parents died in a noble cause and that was enough for him to sigh in ease. But matters like Uchiha Madara had more priority now. He folded the letter and kept it back on the table.

"Please read it, Hokage-sama." said Naruto. Hiruzen nodded and began reading the letter. He smiled a bit reading the parts where Minato expressed his love and belief in his son. But his face faltered reading the third and fourth paragraph and Naruto could sense anxiety leaking out of him. As he finished reading, Hiruzen massaged his wrinkled bridge of his nose and let out a troubled sigh.

"Hokage-sama, if I may?" asked Naruto. Hiruzen looked up at Naruto's deep blue eyes and gave a nod.

"Hokage-sama, before my arrival back from the capital, I was sent on a secret mission by Daimyo-sama to Kiri to help the rebels win the war." Began Naruto, "The mission was a success. I was able to kill the Fourth Mizukage, Yagura and the conditions at Kiri are stabilizing. The fifth Mizukage, Terumi Mei even agreed to come to Konoha during the next chūnin exams to form an alliance." Hiruzen was quite angry to be kept in shadows about such an important mission and he needed to have a talk with Fire Daimyo about it. But it was a good news too that Konoha helped Kiri to gain lasting stabilization, which would possibly lead to very strong ties between the two countries in the future.

Before he spoke, Naruto spoke up again, "But in the end, we came across a very important info. Yagura was under an influence of a very high level optical genjutsu and the whole war had been orchestrated by a third-person, who we concluded to be an Uchiha, possibly Uchiha Madara. And I think that this unknown Uchiha and the masked ninja _Yondaime-sama_ fought are related or are same person." Hiruzen's blood almost shrank hearing Madara's name again. A missing Nin from Konoha, who should have died a long time ago, was causing chaos across the continent right under Hiruzen's nose and he comes to know about it after 13 years. His years are clearly getting on him.

"Hmm Naruto, does anybody knows about the appearance of Madara in the mission apart from both of us?" asked Hiruzen.

"Hai! Apart from both of us, Danzō-sama, Mizukage-sama, the swordswoman cum ANBU hiding near the bookshelf and the ill-looking ANBU hiding in the ceiling gap of your office, nobody knows about this detail."

Despite the situation, Hiruzen had to laugh. A 13 year old ninja could easily pick out the ANBU hiding in the office and he was thoroughly pleased with Naruto's analysis. But he also have to ask the ANBU commander to up the ANBU training.

"Yugao, Hayate come out! Your positions have been discovered." In a blink of an eye, they appeared behind Naruto, holding out their swords aiming at his various body parts.

"How did you know I was there? My **Meisaigakure no Jutsu (Chameleon Technique)** is second only to Jiraiya-sama and Hayate-kun." Asked Yugao, aiming her sword near Naruto's crotch.

"Wrong Yugao-san." Said another Naruto, who rippled out of the space at her back, aiming a kunai at her throat. "I think you have more competition now. Your technique faltered around your sword and it gave away your position. One more thing to consider Yugao-san, please use neutral honorifics when on duty. Your reference to Hayate-san here further gave away your relationship with him, which can be easily exploited by enemies. And if I aimed my kunai at him…" a third Naruto appeared behind Hayate aiming the kunai at his jugular, Naruto continued, "… I can easily sense your chakra riling up and anger rolling out of you in waves. Please take care of that." Said the second Naruto, before disappearing along with the clone behind Hayate.

There was a pin-drop silence for a minute in the room. Yugao and Hayate had lowered their swords. The tobacco pipe from Hiruzen's mouth had fallen down on the table. Yugao was clearly down casted, not liking being deftly one-upped by a 13 year old. Hayate slowly sheathed his sword and broke the budding silence in the room.

"Naruto-san. 'Cough' how did you know that I am ill? 'Cough' " asked Hayate.

"Well my sensor abilities picked up low chakra around your right lung than any of your other body parts, showing a less-developed Chakra Pathway System around it, implying to a weaker right lung. When you were hiding, your breathing was short and constant and didn't pressurise your lung much. But your cough-filled talk now proved my findings." Concluded Naruto with his straight voice.

As much as the ANBU in the room wanted to disagree, the 13 year old in front of them was a damn good shinobi. Hiruzen wanted to stand up and applaud him for his perfect observations and conclusions but didn't wanted to demoralize the ANBU further, so he began with his speech.

"Thank you Naruto! I must say your observations were quite accurate and my both ANBU should pay heed towards your advices. Now with the main talk, I declare the recent info regarding the possible Uchiha rogue an S-rank secret. These talks shouldn't leave this room or the ninja will be dealt with execution." Declared the Third Hokage, getting a nod from his three subordinates. The ANBU then vanished back to their hiding places within the office.

"And Naruto, you can use your paternal family name and compound from now on. The whole Senju compound operates on seals." He said, "Tomorrow is the academy graduation class. Graduates will be divided among selected Jounins to form a four-man cell. Naruto, as a Tokubetsu Jounin, your work will be to act as assistant Jounin sensei to the teams who will pass the real genin test. I will help you rotate your duties among them. You will also be performing the missions I assign you or be performing missions with the respective genin teams. Dismissed."

"Hai, Hokage-sama!" saluted Naruto. As he was about to walk out of the door, the door opened and a young brown haired boy wearing a long blue scarf walked in holding a wooden kunai in his right hand. His eyes were focused directly on the Hokage.

"Oi, Jiji!" he yelled. "Today I will defeat you and take that fancy hat of yours!" Naruto watched as the intruder took a few steps further before tripping on his own scarf, his face landing directly in front of Naruto's feet. The Hokage let out a loud sigh before massaging his wrinkled temples with his hands.

"Aah!" the intruder hissed, as he slowly stood rubbing his forehead, when his eyes fell on a blond figure standing in front of him. "Why did you trip me? Don't you know I am?" he shouted.

Naruto adopted to answer him in an emotionless manner, "No, I didn't trip you. You fell stepping on your own scarf. And no, I don't know who you are." As they were arguing, another sunglasses-wearing ninja walked in, whom Naruto guessed to be a Tokubetsu Jounin. The ninja quickly came in between the argument and had his hand set on his kunai pouch.

"Stop arguing with the _Omago-sama (Honorable grandson), _boy or you will face the consequences." Said the sunglasses-wearing ninja. Naruto, from the corner of his eye, saw the young boy drawing his mouth back in a snarl at the word 'Omago-sama', clearly not like the title. Before the situation became worse, Hiruzen interrupted their talks.

"Naruto. This young lad here is my grandson, Sarutobi Konohamaru. And the ninja is Ebisu, Konohamaru's personal guard and private trainer. Konohamaru, Ebisu, this is Senju Naruto." Said Hiruzen, as he lighted up his tobacco pipe. Though Konohamaru was confused, he had heard the name 'Senju' somewhere, Ebisu was gaping like a fish.

"B-but Hokage-sama, isn't Tsunade-sama the only Senju left?" asked Ebisu.

"No Ebisu. Naruto here is the son of the Fourth. His identity was kept incognito all these years to protect him better against threats." Replied Hiruzen, clearing the doubts. After a minute of silence, Ebisu straightened up and gave Naruto a deep bow.

"I apologize for my behaviour, Senju-sama. I didn't know who you are." Said Ebisu.

"Ebisu-san, please stop this." Said Naruto in a neutral voice. "We are colleagues and work on equal stands, so there is no need for you to be so formal to me. Further, you didn't do anything wrong earlier. You were just doing your duty of protecting young Saru-san here." He said before turning to Konohamaru.

"Saru-san, your constant attacking attempts won't make you the Hokage. The Hokage is the strongest ninja in the village for nothing. You must train harder than anybody else in the village because there is no shortcut for becoming a Hokage." said Naruto, though his eyes were hardened, his voice had a bit of gentleness in it.

The old Hokage had a lone tear escaping his eye. It was his Tobirama sensei who used to call him 'Saru' in fondness. And now his grandson is called 'Saru' by his sensei's grandson. History surely repeated itself.

Naruto turned back towards the door and opened the door. He stopped and looked back at Ebisu one last time. "Ebisu-san, if you stop yourself and others calling Saru-san 'Omago-sama' and call him by his name, I am sure his constant attacks on Hokage-sama will stop." He said before he walked out of the office.

Hiruzen was pleased. Even though Naruto seemed a bit anti-social, there was still hope for him.

'There is hope for me to redeem myself.' Thought Hiruzen.


	6. The Stare Down

**Senju Naruto- The Rise of a Hero**

**Chapter 6– The Stare Down**

**Inspired by 'The Hope of the Senju Clan' by Aragon Potter**

"…"–talking

'…'-thinking

""**-demon/Jutsu**

**Naruto does not belong to me.**

**A/N: I am very glad to see that my story is liked by so many readers. Thank you for your reviews readers, they surely are a big help. **

-0-

It had been a day since Naruto moved in the Senju Clan Compound. It was as big as the Hyuuga Clan Compound and as empty as the Uchiha Clan Compound. It was ironic that the two of the history's biggest and strongest rival clans were shortened down to only two known members each. But it didn't bother Naruto at all. He liked secluded places and couldn't find anything better.

The compound was quite near to the Forty-Fourth Training Ground, also known as the Forest of Death. In respect to clan's relation with the forest, the compound's placement was very accurate. With the danger lurking at every corner of the forest and the privacy it provided from rest of the village, it was a perfect place for him to train.

Naruto found the sealing done around the compound state of the art. Some of the seals even he had a little difficulty understanding. With the history of sealing legends like Uzumaki Mito, his father and his mother and the compound, he couldn't need any better confirmation. But there were some parts Naruto had no access to, most importantly, the clan library.

The library itself was huge, as big as the village's own library. He can easily see why Senju clan was known as "The clan with a thousand skills" from the sheer size of it. But he needed someone else's blood to unlock the seal on the door, the head of the clan's blood. It was a treasure trove of unspeakable knowledge. A child's curiosity of learning something new and exciting was still in him and he could only imagine what all knowledge is trapped inside the library's walls. He could only imagine where the current clan head, Senju Tsunade, was.

He came to know about his family when he was four and a half, during a history lesson at Root. When he was told that the First Hokage was the Mokuton user like him, he quickly linked his relations with the Senju clan, as bloodlines are only passed through blood (A/N: Forgive the pun). By the end of the day and surfing through various history books, he had found that he looked a lot like the Fourth Hokage and his wife was pregnant during Kyuubi's attack. He had derived the meaning and cried himself to sleep at night. He didn't tell anyone about his discovery and only asked Danzō once before going to the Fire Daimyo. As a budding ninja, Fourth Hokage was a hero in his eye but as a child, he always had two thoughts in his mind about his parents:

'Did they love me?' or

'Did they hate me and abandoned me for the village?'

Many times, the second question had more possible answers to support than first one. The Fourth Hokage loved his village. He could kill for the village and he could die for his village. Then why not sacrifice your son for the village too! It seemed plausible and he did sacrifice him in a way. As a ninja it was quite heroic that you can sacrifice your family for the sake of the village. As a son, a single thought like this almost burned down a hole in his chest.

But the letter from the Hokage brought peace to the ache in his chest. His parents loved him and they won't ask anybody else but him to deal with the Kyuubi because they believed in him. For the lovelorn heart of his that was more than enough. But then came the case of Senju Tsunade.

If she was there present in the village during his birth, according to his father's letter, then why wasn't she there for him later in his life? According to the history books, she sounded like a super powerful Iryonin. But to him, she was a traitor who ran away from her duties, her responsibilities, and her…family.

He had already planned to have an all-out fight with her the time he sees his 'Onee-sama'. And then bring her back afterwards, if she remained alive.

-0-

After having an intense 4 hours training session at the Forest of death, Naruto quickly took a shower. Today, he was about to meet with the graduating teams at the academy. As far as he knew, all the graduates were of his age group and definitely wanted to see what he would have been like if he had proceeded through the academy to become a ninja.

He wasn't living in the clan head's house in the compound. He found a simple one room house in the darkest corners of the compound. It had one bedroom with a single bed, cupboard and study table near a curtain-less window, a bathroom and a small kitchen with almost no utensils. So, by chance if Anko was just passing by his house to reach the training ground, she could have easily seen him wiping off his well-chiseled and lean body with a towel and his hair falling on his unmasked, whiskered face. He also had an ANBU swirl tattoo on his left bicep.

Quickly, he wore a standard black long-sleeve ninja suit over a mesh shirt with an Uzumaki swirl on the right bicep, arm guards, strapped up ninja sandals and tied the kunai holder around his right thigh. He had cut his shoulder-length spiky hair to the length of a finger. He took the white sash with the Fire kanji he got from the Fire Daimyo and tied it around his waist. He then took out a Senju Clan personalized Jounin vest from the cupboard, which he had found while exploring the clan head's house in the evening. It was plain blue flak jacket, except it was blue in color, had distinctive white fur around the collar and had the Senju Clan symbol, the Vajra, below the fur at the back. Looking at the mirror inside his room, he smiled a bit seeing his new look. Taking a good look at the Happuri-style forehead protector that he had also found at the head house before putting it on, he saw that it had Senju emblem engraving on the inside and Konoha's emblem on the outside. It was a perfect fit on him.

He won't be wearing the face mask now, he doesn't need to hide from the world anymore.

He took one last look in the mirror before he walked out of the room, picking up a sealing related book from the study table.

He looked like a young, blond version of his grandfather.

-0-

**Graduation day, Ninja Academy, Konohagakure**

"Ok kids, settle down!" said Iruka, the chūnin academy teacher to the graduates returning from their lunch break. When they settled down, Iruka began his speech.

"Today, you all graduate from the academy and become a full-fledged ninja. Remember that the world of ninja is a scary place. You will have to continue your hard work to survive and aspire your dreams and I wish you all the best. Now, I am going to announce the names of the student of the year and kunoichi of the year. And this year's top graduate's name is Uch-" before he could finish, he was interrupted by a loud knock on the door. He always cherished the look on a graduate's face when their names were announced and was annoyed by the knock.

"Come in!" he ordered. The door opened and the whole class gasped looking at the intruder, as if seeing a ghost. Shaggy blond hair, whiskered face and looked just like the Second Hokage from the history books. He looked as old as the current graduates albeit a little taller. Without looking up from the book in his hands, he crossed the room and came to stop near Iruka.

Iruka shook himself out of the thoughts and straightened up. "Yes? Who are you and what do you want?" inquired Iruka. Without looking out of the book in hand, the intruder opened his kunai holder, which actually stiffened Iruka, and took out a small piece of paper with Hokage's seal on it and extended it to Iruka. That got Iruka's attention as he took it and started reading it hurriedly. The whole class could see their teacher's face expression going from worry to shock and finally settled down to gaping fish face.

"Iruka-sensei, what's wrong?" asked Yamanaka Ino, the heir of the Yamanaka Clan and a gossiping fan-girl, as she eyed the mysterious eye-candy that walked inside the class from the corner of her eye. Regaining his wits and giving back the slip to the intruder with trembling hands, Iruka turned towards the class.

"A-alright class, there is a-an important announcement made by the Hokage-sama. This ninja here…" he continued, looking at the intruder, "… is S-S-Senju Naruto, Tokubetsu Jounin. He will be acting as the additional sensei to all the graduating teams this year. Say hello to N-Naruto-sensei." Heavy silence fell in the room for a minute before the shouting broke the silence.

"How is he our sensei? He is just as old as me!" shouted Inuzuka Kiba, a brat and the heir of Inuzuka Clan, the clan famous for their use of _ninken (ninja dogs)_, his ninken Akamaru barking to support his question.

"My bugs are reacting differently around him because they are reacting like they react around a tree but are scared to go near him." Said Aburame Shino, a _kikaichu (bug)_ user and the heir of Aburame Clan.

'I hope he will help me become strong and confident, just like father wants.' Thought lavender-eyed Hyuuga Hinata, the heir of the Hyuuga Clan, House of the famed dojūtsu, **Byakugan**.

'Man, this is so troublesome. Two sensei to face together. And Tsunade of the Sannin was the last Senju left, so where has he come from? So damn troublesome…' thought Nara Shikamaru, heir of the deer-loving Nara Clan.

"I hope he takes us to BBQ restaurant after this." Said Akimichi Chouji, heir of the Akimichi Clan.

'A hot, mysterious sensei. I am already liking it. Though, if Sasuke-kun is in my team somehow, it would be a dream come true.' Thought Ino.

'He might be good-looking but nothing comes before Sasuke-kun.' Thought a pink-haired Haruno Sakura, a civilian graduate.

Though, Naruto was already hating the shouting in the room but was quite fascinated with the emotions coming from the students. Disbelief, confusion, hope, hunger, love and many more. Yet, the oddest of the all was hatred. Deep, pure hatred. He looked up from the book at the source and found a raven-haired boy looking at him with his raven eyes, sitting at the farthest corner of the class. He wore a deep blue t-shirt with high collars and had a red and white fan in the sleeves. An Uchiha. Oh! How can Naruto miss this staring contest between the heirs of two historic rival clans?

The world seemed to stop around them as the Senju's blue slit eyes locked with the Uchiha's black ones. The shouting seemed to lower as the class felt someone in the back riling up his/her chakra. The graduates and Iruka looked up and saw the Uchiha in a stare down competition with the newly arrived blond sensei. Though no boy wanted to admit but Sasuke was easily the strongest in their class and had the maximum chakra among them, more than an average genin. Everyone could see purple chakra outline and a half smirk on his face, taunting the blond. Naruto raised an eyebrow as he saw Sasuke playing a dangerous game. Iruka so wanted to stop Sasuke from taunting his sensei when suddenly he drowned in a wave of pure chakra.

It hit the class like a shockwave. It was so strong that the graduates in the front row passed out of the pressure. Shino's kikaichu swarmed around haywire and Akamaru hid himself inside Kiba's jacket and started wailing. Others could see the floor and the walls cracking up when the blond ninja riled up his chakra and it killed the smirk on the Uchiha's face. The floor beneath his desk cracked and the Uchiha fell of his seat, giving Naruto his win.

Everyone then silently watched as Naruto walked up to a corner, diagonal to that of Sasuke and to their sheer amazement, walk up on the wall. He reached up on the roof, squatted down and started reading his book.

Silence spread in the class before Kiba's loudmouth broke it using four loud words.

"THAT. WAS. SO. AWESOME."

-0-

**Hokage Tower, Half an hour ago**

Hiruzen didn't want to miss this day at any cost. Today he was launching the Senju Heir back in the world and he surely didn't want to miss the expression on people's faces. So when he opened his office door that day, he wasn't surprised to see his Jounins gathered inside. There was Maito Gai, his son Sarutobi Asuma, the newly-promoted Genjutsu Mistress Yūhi Kurenai and many more. Even the ever late copy ninja, Hatake Kakashi was present there.

Nodding to them, the Hokage quickly made his way towards his seat behind the desk. Once seated, he looked up and saw every Jounin raising their hands to ask something.

"Kurenai." He said simply, addressing her request first.

"Who is he, Hokage-sama?" she asked.

"He is Senju Uzumaki Naruto, son of the Fourth Hokage and the heir of Senju Clan." The mention of 'son of the Fourth Hokage' lowered many hands but heavy murmuring began in the room.

"Silence!" the Hokage said, his voice booming around the room, effectively ending the murmuring. "Gai!"

"Hokage-sama," said Gai, "I have heard that he is thirteen and he is going to be acting as an additional sensei to the new graduates. Don't you think he is too young for this?" he asked, no 'Youth' clichés in the sentence.

"No Gai. Though he is very young but he is skilled and has experience. His Senju blood runs strong in his veins. You don't know but he ended the civil war at Kiri." And that raised quite many eyebrows and gasps.

"But Hokage-sama" Asuma spoke up. "We didn't send any support from Konoha to Kiri. How did he end the war?"

"Apparently, the Fire Daimyo sent him on a secret mission to help his friend's country. Naruto worked under Danzō for ten years. Asuma, like you, he was one of the twelve Guardian ninja of the Fire Daimyo for two years. You should meet with him." Said Hiruzen, enjoying the gaping look on his son's face. Finally he turned towards the last hand, which belonged to Hatake Kakashi.

"Yes, Kakashi?"

"Is he the jinchūriki of Kyuubi?" Heavy silence spread across the room as everyone's attention towards their leader. Hiruzen looked at his top level subordinates. They had the right to know about it if they have to protect the village in the future. Closing his eyes, he gave a firm nod.

Before anyone else could continue, Hiruzen opened the desk drawer and took out his famous Crystal Ball, which acted like a telescope and could track an individual.

"Now, before you guys speak anything, I had ordered Naruto to report at the academy five minutes ago. So if you guys want to know more about him, you all are welcome to stay." Said Hiruzen as he activated his crystal ball and focused it on Naruto. The Jounins not seeing any problem quickly gathered around the ball. They saw a blue clad figure standing beside the chūnin teacher, who was reading some note with gaping mouth.

"What is he reading?" asked Gai trying to figure out the note.

"Oh its nothing. I just wrote that his name was Senju Naruto and he will be acting as support sensei's to this year's graduating teams." Answered Hiruzen. Then say saw the graduates shouting when Iruka told them about Hokage's message. Naruto looked a bit annoyed by it but he was silently reading his book.

"Does he also read smut like Kakashi?" asked Kurenai, fuming a little.

"Apparently not Kurenai." Said Hiruzen, "As much as I can see, he is reading some book on sealing. I was told that he showed keen interest in Fūinjutsu. The village can surely use a master of this fragile art." Next, they saw that the shouting in the class suddenly die down. Naruto looked up his book and his eyes were locked in the corner of the class. Changing the angle of the crystal ball to the corner of the class, they saw Uchiha Sasuke warily looking at Naruto with the pure look of hatred.

"Aw, not again!" groaned Hiruzen, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"What's wrong Hokage-sama?" asked Gai, concerned about his leader.

"Gai, what we are seeing is the new generation of Senju-Uchiha legendary rivalry. If they get past it and become friends, they both can lead to great things. Like Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara working together to form this village. But if it gets bitter, there will be destruction at mass scale. Like fight between the First Hokage and Uchiha Madara at the Valley of the end. It's like it is in their genes to hate each other." They saw in the ball that Naruto had accepted the stare down challenge.

"I definitely want to see this!" said Tokubetsu Jounin Mitarashi Anko, her voice brimming with excitement. Sasuke has started riling up his chakra, which was nothing in comparison to that of Jounins, with a half-ass smirk. Naruto looked calmly at the Uchiha and just raised an eyebrow at it. Then they saw the hell breaking loose in the class. As Naruto riled up his chakra, the floor broke beneath his feet and the walls cracked up. Being near to academy, the tremors could easily be felt in the office of the Hokage. Iruka and the front row graduates fainted in Naruto's sheer presence. Sasuke's desk broke and the Uchiha fell off his desk giving the victory to Naruto. Finally, they saw Naruto walking up the wall and squatted on the roof calmly reading his book, as if nothing had happened.

The Jounins in the office silently straightened up, they were too stumped up to say anything. Naruto's chakra levels were easily beyond Kage-level shinobi, without using Kyuubi's power. As they were about to leave to meet their new teams at the academy. Everybody saw Anko raising her hand to question the Hokage.

"Yes, Anko?" asked Hiruzen, suddenly looking ten years older than the previous second.

"May I work with him in the near future?" asked Anko excitedly. Hiruzen let out a deep sigh when he thought about all the sadistic techniques Anko and Naruto will use on others if they worked together in the near future. He definitely didn't expect these incidents today.

'I am too old for this stuff.' He thought as he gave a small nod to Anko.


	7. Team Formation

**Senju Naruto- The Rise of a Hero**

**Chapter 7– Team Formation**

**Inspired by 'The Hope of the Senju Clan' by Aragon Potter**

**"**…"–talking

'…'-thinking

**""****-demon/Jutsu**

**Naruto does not belong to me.**

-0-

**Graduation Hall, Ninja Academy, Konoha**

Sitting like a bat on the corner of the roof, Naruto silently observed the graduates from his age group from the edges of the sealing book. All of them were silently gazing back at him, some warily and some with star-filled eyes. From there faces and chakra levels, he knew that only around 30% would pass the 'actual' genin test which would be mostly comprised of the members of the ninja clans.

He knew this was important. You simply can't send anybody on the front line to fight if they are not born to fight. Only around one-fifth of these passing 30% will belong to civilian families, even less. Rest all would either come back to the academy to redo a year or they would simply drop and began their civilian life in the village.

On the diagonal corner of the room, the Uchiha was sprawled across the floor and two girls, one with pink hair and the other looked like the Yamanaka girl, were busy trying waking him up. After two minutes of their crying and wailing, Naruto closed his book and brought his attention towards the graduates in the second row, who almost fell from the chair under his uninterested yet piercing gaze.

"Someone bring some water and wake everybody up in the class. I don't think we have whole day for that." He said flatly, pointing towards Uchiha Fan Club. After some blinking and snickering of the graduates, they quickly got up and fetched some water from the washroom to wake up their chūnin teacher and rest of the class.

Iruka woke up with a start. Standing up slowly, he looked around and found himself in the class, some of his students looked worried. 'What was that?' he thought, 'It felt like I was hit by a tsunami. And why are there cracks on the floor?' Looking around, he found a blue vest-clad someone crouched on the roof of the room, silently reading a book. Memories of the immediate past rushed back in Iruka's head as he turned back to face his class, his body trembling, wanting to finish this dream or nightmare as quickly as possible.

"A-alright class," he fumbled, "I am g-going to announce your teams and Jounin sensei for the y-year. They are formed as a group of three genin which is led by an elite Jounin shinobi. I-it is so that ninja can learn teamwork and experience true shinobi life. And they are based on the genin individual skills to balance between the teams." Said Iruka as he took the sheet from teacher's desk.

"So this year's teams are-"

"Team 1…- Team 6…" (A/N: Don't know, don't care.) Naruto wasn't much interested about the graduates in these teams as they were formed of civilians and had very less chance of going through.

"Team 7- Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura, and Inuzuka Kiba. Your sensei will be Hatake Kakashi." Naruto just raised his brow without looking out of his book. Hearing her name with Sasuke, Sakura jumped up with delight. Sasuke just 'hmphed' in a typical Uchiha way and glared at Naruto and Kiba shouted getting Iruka's attention.

"Ino-pig! See! I got to be with Sasuke-kun and not you! Even the fate favours me! My love is stronger than yours!" yelled Sakura at Ino.

"Sensei! Why is forehead and Kiba placed in Sasuke's team and not me?" shouted Ino.

"Oi! Sensei! Why am I teamed up with this dark emo ass?" asked Kiba, Akamaru yipping in his support.

"Kiba, Language! And as for your team, I told you that they are balanced out based on genin's individual skills. Now since Sasuke and Sakura passed with highest marks and you passed with lowest, you three are teamed together." Said Iruka. The class laughed at Kiba who grumbled and lowered his head.

Iruka continued, "Now, Team 8 will be – Aburame Shino, Hyuuga Hinata and Kurama Yakumo. Your Jounin instructor will be Yūhi Kurenai." Shino gave a quick nod, along with the meek nods of lavender-eyed Hinata and brown-haired Yakumo, the heir of the Kurama Clan.

"Team 9, led by Might Guy, is still in rotation from last year." Said Iruka. "So Team 10 will be – Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Chouji. Your Jounin sensei is Sarutobi Asuma." Ino groaned, Shikamaru muttered, "Troublesome…" and went back to sleep and Chouji kept munching his potato chips.

Iruka continued, "The team Jounin leaders will be coming here to pick up the respective teams in fifteen minutes. So for the time being, please get to know your additional sensei." With that, he picked up all his paperwork and ran out of the room without even looking at the blonde Tokubetsu Jounin.

"Oi Senju!" shouted Sasuke, as the door closed behind Iruka. "What did you do to me?"

"It's 'sensei' for you, Uchiha-san!" replied Naruto, as he looked up from his book, in a calm and firm voice. "As for what I did is none of your concern." The Uchiha and his fan girls were seething in anger but didn't reply back.

"That was so cool, Naruto-sensei! The Uchiha emo deserved it!" shouted Kiba, with Akamaru's bark in tow.

"I have a question, Naruto-sensei." Said Shino. "How are you hanging upside down on the roof?" he asked. Everybody in the class now had their eyes directed towards Naruto.

"What do you mean, Aburame-san?" asked Naruto, with a bit of confusion on his face. "Didn't the academy teach you tree-walking exercise? It is for chakra control."

"I am afraid not, sensei." Replied Shino, pushing his goggles up his nose. "For chakra control, we have only been taught leaf-balancing exercises."

"Then the standards of Konoha Ninja Academy are lower than I anticipated." Said Naruto, as he went back to read his sealing book. The students were dumbfounded on the comment. Before they could reply back, the door of the classroom opened and two Jounins walked in. One was a tall man with a small beard, wearing standard Konoha ninja uniform with Jounin flak jacket. He had the '_hitai-ate_' of Konoha tied to his forehead and wore a white sash with kanji of 'Fire' along his waist, signifying his association with the Twelve Ninja Guardians.

The other Jounin was a fair-skinned female with red eyes and long, untamed black hair. Her outfit consisted of a red mesh armour blouse with only right hand sleeve. Rest of her outfit had a similar pattern of that of bandages and regular sandals, her hitai-ate tied on her forehead. They both gave a pensive look to Naruto before they turned to look at the new graduates.

"My name is Sarutobi Asuma." The male Jounin spoke. "Team 10, report in training ground 12 in 15 minutes."

"Yūhi Kurenai, Team 8 Jounin leader." Spoke the red-eyed Jounin. "Team 8 report in training ground 8 in 15 minutes.'

As the requested team members got up, Naruto formed a unique cross handed seal and two clones popped up in existence.

"**Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Technique).**"

The new genin were amazed as they saw the clones, after giving a quick salute to the original, following team 8 and team 10 to their designated meeting areas and many quickly raised their hands to ask questions from their additional sensei. Naruto, seeing their curiosity, pointed towards the pink-haired girl, Sakura.

"What technique was that, sensei?" asked Sakura.

"It's called **Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, **a B-rank Jounin level technique." Replied Naruto, looking up from his book.

"What is the difference between it and **Bunshin no Jutsu (Clone Technique)?** They looked similar to me." Questioned Kiba.

"It may look like that Inuzuka-san. But in this, I form real, tangible clones which can perform tasks like a normal person unlike **Bunshin no Jutsu**." Said Naruto. All genin had stars in their eyes knowing about a new shinobi jutsu. Except Sasuke, who was seething with anger about the Senju surpassing him?

"Senju, teach me this technique right now!" shouted Sasuke, punching his desk. As soon as he said it, the room temperature suddenly fell many degrees and air became laced with gruesome killing intent affecting Sasuke. It was so strong that Sasuke started envisioning the Uchiha massacre again and suddenly broke down and started crying loudly. It was a very scary sight for the other genin as they had never seen the Uchiha breaking down like that. They silently vowed to themselves never to piss off their blond sensei again.

"I said this before and I will say it again, Uchiha-san." Said Naruto with a grim face, lowering the killing intent, "It is 'sensei' for you. If you order me around again, you will face dire consequences."

As the genin quickly regained their bearings, Shino asked the same questions as Sasuke, albeit in proper manner. To which, Naruto gave a quick negative nod and explained, "Sorry, Aburame-san but this technique is a Kinjutsu (Forbidden Technique). Reason being when you form a shadow clone, your chakra is divided into half and the user can easily die of chakra exhaustion."

Getting a quick nod from the Aburame for the explanation, Naruto concentrated back on reading the sealing book again. As the time progressed, other Jounin sensei arrived and took their respective teams and Naruto followed them using shadow clones. An hour had passed and only Team 7 remained in the room.

"Man! Where is our sensei?" shouted Kiba, Akamaru sleeping on his head. Sasuke was busy looking outside the window and fuming from inside and Sakura kept stealing glances of her crush and giggled. Getting irritated of this sight, Kiba turned towards the blond Jounin who was still hanging like a bat.

"Naruto-sensei, since this Kakashi-sensei isn't turning up, can you teach us anything?" asked puppy-eyed Kiba. Naruto, though unaffected to the puppy eyes, considered Kiba's request and gave a quick nod. "Alright, academy training ground, two minutes." With that, he merged into the wall and disappeared. Kiba quickly muttered, "Awesome!" and ran out to the field. Not wanting to be left behind, Sasuke got up and ran out with Sakura trailing him.

-0-

**Training ground, Ninja Academy, Konoha**

"Team 7," addressed Naruto with an assertive tone, "Today I will teach you the basics of Tree-climbing exercise, the one I was doing in the classroom. It increases chakra control and you can perform your jutsus more efficiently." Said Naruto. He could sense the excitement brimming from the three genin, except a bit of malice from Sasuke.

"For this practice, you have to focus a fixed amount of chakra to the bottom of your feet." Said Naruto as he formed a Ram seal and started climbing on a tree in the field without using hands. He reached a high branch and hung himself upside down using chakra under his feet. "Remember, less chakra and you won't stick properly. More chakra and you will be pushed away and the tree will break." He said as he passed them a kunai each.

"Use them to mark your progress on the trees. For starters, try running towards a tree and try to climb." He said as he took out his book and started reading again.

"Hai!" the three genin nodded as they picked up the kunai and chose one tree each to practice. Naruto saw as they ran towards the trees with their kunai ready, Kiba and Sasuke could only make up 4 steps before falling down due to less chakra application whereas Sakura kept running till she reached the top branch.

"Yay! I did it in the first try. This was fun." cheered Sakura.

"Whoa! Sakura that was awesome!" shouted Kiba. Sasuke said nothing but looked a bit jealous.

'So Haruno-san has advanced chakra control but that can be contributed to her low-genin level reserves.' Thought Naruto.

"Haruno-san, you did well. Now I want you to keep hanging like that as long as your chakra allows. It will increase your chakra reserves." Said Naruto with a straight face.

"Hai, sensei!" said Sakura as she kept hanging upside down and observed her other teammates.

Two hours had passed and team kept doing the tree climbing exercise. Sakura had passed out within five-minutes of hanging upside down due to chakra exhaustion. Naruto had caught her and administered basic medical ninjutsu to boost her chakra and then let her sleep under the tree. The other two team members had progressed quite a bit and climbed more than half of tree's length.

Naruto could sense a hidden chakra signature near the border of the training field. 'Probably an ANBU to keep an eye on me.' He thought. Suddenly, he picked up another unique yet familiar Jounin-level chakra signature around the border of the training ground and ordered the team to standby.

"Alright, team 7, your sensei is here. You may stop now and sit down. Also wake up Haruno-san." Said Naruto. Within a minute, a silver-haired ninja wearing standard Jounin uniform and a face mask made his presence known before them. His headband was also tilted to cover his left eye. His visible left eye looked bored to Team 7 but Naruto could see the calculative look focused on him.

"YOU ARE LATE, KAKASHI-SENSEI!" shouted Sakura and Kiba. Sasuke grunted with annoyance towards the team sensei but was happy as he hadn't wasted his time. Naruto had come to the ground and was looking at the new arrival with mild irritation.

The silver haired Jounin, Hatake Kakashi, scratched his neck and gave a lazy response, "Sorry, I was lost on the road of life." Ignoring the angry stares of the genin and stoic expression of the fellow blond-Jounin, he continued, "Since we are already outside, we can start with the introduction here itself. Tell me your likes, dislikes, dreams for the future." Said Kakashi as he leaned towards a tree.

"What should we say? Can you introduce yourself first?" asked Sakura. Kakashi let out a tired sigh before speaking.

"Alright. My name is Hatake Kakashi. There are few things I like and few things I dislike but I don't want to tell you. Um…I never thought about any dreams for the future. Now your turn pinkie." Said Kakashi.

'All he told us was his name.' thought Team 7 with a sweat drop. Sakura, though annoyed by her nickname, cleared her throat and spoke, "My name is Haruno Sakura. I like," she giggled looking at Sasuke, "I dislike Ino-pig and my dreams for the future is to," she giggled again looking at Sasuke.

"Alright, your turn tattoos." Said Kakashi, pointing at Kiba.

"My name is Inuzuka Kiba. I like Akamaru and training and I dislike nicknames and emo-ass here." Said Kiba. "My dream is to become the strongest Inuzuka ever and lead my village and clan to prosperity."

"What about you, Uchiha?" asked Kakashi.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke," said Sasuke, "I hate a lot of things and I don't like anything. I have a dream, or rather an ambition to revive my clan and kill a certain man." Said Sasuke with a distant look.

'Alright, so I have a love-struck kunoichi, an ambitious mutt and an avenger. Great' thought Kakashi as he looked at his team. Soon, his gaze drifted towards his fellow blonde Jounin, who was staring impassively at him.

"And what about you, Naruto-san? Would you like to introduce yourself?" asked Kakashi.

"My name is Senju Uzumaki Naruto, age 13. I like gardening, reading, studying seals and training. I dislike traitors. My dream is glory of Konoha." Said Naruto, without a flicker of emotions.

'Wow, Naruto-sensei is as old as us and still so strong.' Thought Kiba and Sakura.

'Why is this Senju so strong and I am not? What am I doing wrong?' thought Sasuke.

'A Senju version of Uchiha Itachi. Even though he is sensei's legacy, he acts and behaves nothing like him.' Thought Kakashi.

"Alright, now the introductions are over, Team 7 will report tomorrow at 7 am on training ground 7 for the 'real' genin exam." Said Kakashi with bored expression.

"But sensei, we already gave the exam at the academy." Said Sakura.

"Yes you gave the exam but that isn't the real genin exam. It only points towards the students who have potential to become ninjas. Tomorrow, I will decide whether you should become genin or you should be sent back to the academy." Explained Kakashi.

"So report tomorrow in the morning for your exam. Plus, I advise you all to not have breakfast as you might puke. See Ya!" Continued Kakashi. With that, Kakashi disappeared in a puff of smoke.

As Naruto turned to look at the genin's expressions, he had a sudden influx of memories. All the other team Jounins had already conducted their genin tests and only teams 8 and 10 qualified. Most of the civilian genin teams were disqualified, as he suspected. Only team 7 was left for the test and he will come to know about it tomorrow.

"Alright team! I will meet you three in the morning. Now that you are about to become ninjas of Konoha, never forget to look 'underneath the underneath'. Best of luck. And when not on duty, you can just call me Naruto." He said with a small smile before he too disappeared with a smoke.

-0-

**Hokage Tower, Konoha**

Despite the excitement within the ranks for the rookie genin, the old Hokage was buried under a ton of paperwork.

'What have I done to do this damn paperwork for so long? Someone please take my place.' He cursed mentally as he signed another paper. The door of the office opened and his silver-haired masked Jounin walked in, his orange _Icha-Icha Paradise _smut in his hand.

"Still cursing the paperwork, Hokage-sama?" said Kakashi mockingly, giggling like a girl behind his mask.

"I think this table is cursed or something. No matter how hard I try to finish the paperwork, the height of the stack never decreases." Said Hokage with an exasperated sigh. He kept his pen down and picked his tobacco stick. He looked at the masked Jounin for a minute before he started interrogating him.

"So, how was it?" asked Hiruzen.

"How was what, Hokage-sama? My team or the additional sensei?"

"Both."

"Well, I haven't tested my team yet. I have asked them to report to me tomorrow in training ground 7 for their genin exam. So you will know by tomorrow whether they are in or out."

"Alright, and what about Naruto?" asked the Hokage.

"Well Hokage-sama, Naruto is an enigma. I don't know whether I should trust him fully or I should be wary of him because he was raised by Danzō."

"Explain your reasons, Kakashi?"

"He is nothing like Danzō's trained ninja. He actually have feelings left in him and has skills to interact socially with people. Though, I saw that he likes to stay alone and matters of the others, he doesn't ignore anyone who asks for his help. My team likes him more than me, with the exception of Sasuke. When they were waiting for me, he had started teaching my team tree climbing technique. They will be done by tomorrow. He is calm, collected and doesn't let his emotions leak out. During introduction, I actually sounded more secretive than him. A pragmatic individual."

"And why are you wary of him?" asked Hokage.

"Because it shouldn't be like that." Continued Kakashi. "A ninja raised by Danzō is always more like a trained dummy, no emotions whatsoever. But he is an exception. His dream is glory of Konoha, which you know was the motto of Root ANBU. Always thinking one step ahead for everything. If anything, I would say he is Danzō's successor." Concluded Kakashi.

Hiruzen let out a sigh and turned on his chair to see the Hokage Monument from his office window. He focused his gaze on carved faces of other Hokage, mainly the Fourth, and thought how he had failed their legacy, their blood. How he had failed a father and didn't keep up a promise to protect his son? How he had failed his own students and let Danzō raise Naruto, despite their pleadings. Naruto had sacrificed so much since his birth, all for the village and the village doesn't want to trust him back, and he himself doesn't trust him back.

That is a burden of being a Hokage. The village comes first. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. He will have treat Naruto as a potential threat till he doesn't figure him out, even if he doesn't like it. He turned his chair back towards Kakashi and spoke his orders.

"Keep an eye on him when he is training with the team or is on missions with them. I have also asked the other Jounin sensei to do the same. He already has ANBU trailing him. Let him mix with the team more. The more we know about him, the better. Also, you will fight him to check his skills, after the genin exam. I will be there to watch you. Even though I hate saying this, Naruto is still a potential threat to the village. Dismissed."

"Hai! Hokage-sama!" said Kakashi as he left with a **shunshin**.


	8. Genin Test

**Senju Naruto- The Rise of a Hero**

**Chapter 8 – The Genin Test**

**Inspired by 'The Hope of the Senju Clan' by Aragon Potter**

"…"–talking

'…'-thinking

""**-Demon/Inner Sakura/Jutsu**

**Naruto does not belong to me.**

-0-

**Training Ground 7, Konoha**

Next day, Naruto found himself walking on the road towards training ground 7 early in the morning for genin test. Though Kakashi had asked them to report at 7am, he knew that the silver haired Jounin won't report before 10am. Then the thoughts about the activities he did the previous day came to his mind.

Even though his peer group was weaker than he thought, the day itself was exciting. Talking with them, training with them, messing with them, especially with the Uchiha, he liked it all. While training with the Root and even during the guardian ninja days, he had never met any from his age group with whom he could hold a successful conversation, which had led to less socializing during those years. He was happy that his own age group was accepting him, albeit slowly.

As he reached the training ground, he saw the three genin sitting near the three wooden target poles near a small river. Kiba was sleeping with his back against one pole with Akamaru, who was sleeping on his head. Sasuke was sitting with brooding expression and red eyes, clearly not a morning person. Sakura was sitting beside Sasuke and was stealing glances of her brooding crush, her small chakra signature almost dancing.

"_Ohayo (Good Morning)_ Team 7." Greeted Naruto with plain voice and very small smile, as he made his presence known.

"Ohayo, Naruto sensei." Greeted Sakura and Kiba with lazy voice.

"Wharf!" barked Akamaru.

"Hmph!" grunted Sasuke.

"So, are you ready for the test?" inquired Naruto.

"Hai, sensei! We will rock the exam and become genin." Cheered Kiba, as he raised his fist in the year.

"Good, is anyone interested in some warmup exercise?" asked Naruto, thinking about getting to know them better.

"I am in, sensei!" shouted Kiba, jumping up.

"Hmph!" grunted Sasuke, as he too stood up.

'I don't want to exercise and get all sweaty and stinky in front of Sasuke-kun but if don't go then he will think that I am lazy.' Thought Sakura as she too stood up slowly.

"Alright then, sprint 10 rounds around the training area, follow me." Instructed Naruto as he ran off. The team was dumbfounded with Naruto's speed. But the boys shook themselves out and quickly followed the trail. Sakura just stood there for a minute before slowly following her teammates.

'What have I gotten myself into?' she cursed inwardly.

One hour later, team 7 could be seen sprawled on the grassy earth, breathing heavily. After finishing the sprinting in 15 minutes, 25 minutes for Sakura, Naruto had run them through various stretching and warm up exercises.

"You did good, team 7." Said Naruto, "Rest up and let's wait for Hatake-san'. He said taking out his book on sealing to read. Getting her breath, Sakura sat up and looked at the blond Jounin, or particularly at the book he was reading. After getting free the previous day, she had gone to the library and read books about the skills for ninja and clans of Konoha. Sealing was particularly related to the art of Fūinjutsu. She had yet to decide in which field she wanted to excel.

"Naruto-sensei," asked Sakura, "What is your ninja type?"

"What do you mean, Haruno-san?" asked Naruto, looking out of his book.

"Yesterday, after we got free, I went to library to know about ninja type. They said there are many types of ninja. Some are Ninjutsu specialist, some are Iryojutsu (Medical Techniques), Taijutsu, Genjutsu, and many more. It also said that various ninja clans have specific speciality too." Said Sakura.

"That is good, Haruno-san. What did the book tell about Inuzuka-clan?" asked Naruto, closing his book. Hearing about Inuzuka, Kiba suddenly perked up. Sasuke too sat up wanting to know more about the noisy mutt and the cursed Senju.

"Sensei, it said that members of Inuzuka clan are known to work with ninken and specialize in tracking and Taijutsu skills." Said Sakura in a practised manner. Kiba hearing the description nodded in approval, Akamaru barking in tow. Sasuke just grunted and looked away.

"That's correct. What about the Uchiha clan?" inquired Naruto? Sasuke smirked, wanting to listen to the greatness of his clan.

Sakura, wanting to impress Sasuke, almost recited, "The Uchiha clan is famous for their powerful chakra, strong techniques and the _Kekkai Genkai (Bloodline Limit), _The Sharingan. They specialize in anything combat related and lean strongly towards Fire Release nature. Because of strong battle prowess, many ninja flee rather than facing an Uchiha." Hearing about his clan, Sasuke's smirk was bathing in superiority complex. Kiba was outright glaring at Sasuke, almost wanting to rip off his smile. Sakura looked quite happy that she was able to impress his crush. Naruto wanted to laugh and piss off the Uchiha but controlled his emotions better and let only a small smile adorn his face.

"That's correct Haruno-san. Uchiha clan is a very strong clan. But not every Uchiha acquire the Sharingan." Said Naruto with straight face but his gaze focused on Sasuke. "Due to the harsh natural process to awaken it, very few Uchiha actually manifested Sharingan." Continued Naruto, his voice filled with mocking hostility. Now seething in anger, Sasuke jumped at Naruto in order to punch him but his fist was caught by Naruto before it could reach the target.

"Now-now Uchiha-san, don't take out the anger for your inability to awaken Sharingan on me. Your brother got them when he was eight. You might awaken them too, sooner or later." Said Naruto. Hearing about his traitorous brother and his achievements rekindled the anger in Sasuke from the Uchiha Massacre night.

"**Kawarimi no Jutsu (Substitution Technique)"** said Sasuke as he replaced himself with a wooden log. Sensing someone behind him, Naruto turned around and found Sasuke standing near the stream of river. Naruto just raised an eyebrow as Sasuke quickly formed hand seals to mold chakra.

'Tiger-Ram-Monkey-Boar-Horse-Tiger'** "Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu (Fire release: Great Fireball Technique)."**

As a huge fireball approached Naruto and the rest of Team 7 behind him, before a scream escaped Sakura's mouth, Naruto formed a quick Dog-seal and whispered

"**Doton: Doryūheki (Earth release: Earth-style Wall)"**

A mud wall rose up between the fireball and Naruto and stopped the incoming fireball. Sakura's scream never escaped her mouth. Lowering the wall, Naruto found Sasuke having a perplexed look on his face.

'How strong is he? I didn't even see him going through hand seals or speak the jutsu name?' thought Sasuke.

"You could have hurt your teammates with your baseless anger, Uchiha." Said Naruto, with an edge in his voice as he suddenly disappeared and reappeared behind Sasuke using a **Shunshin**. Before Sasuke could turn around, Naruto took out a Chakra-suppressing seal from his kunai pouch and stuck it on Sasuke's head. Due to sudden loss of chakra in his body, Sasuke fell on the ground and fainted.

"SASUKE-KUN" shouted Sakura, as she ran towards the unconscious Uchiha but was stopped by Naruto.

"Leave him, Haruno-san. I have just sealed his chakra otherwise he could have injured you both. Don't worry, I will release it when Hatake-san arrives. And we can hold our previous discussion to some other time." Said Naruto, with a plain yet intimidating voice.

"H-Hai, Sensei." Mumbled Sakura as she sat back on the ground. Kiba, who was quite during the entire scene suddenly jumped and shouted, "Thank you Kami! For giving me exclusive rights from my class to watch and enjoy Uchiha Emo Ass getting his ass kicked by Naruto-sensei. I don't know how I should repay you!" Naruto watched in amusement as Akamaru too started doing dance around Kiba.

-0-

Kakashi arrived at training ground 7 three hours after the scheduled time. Usually, he came late during meetings because he spent too much time in front of the memorial stone remembering the close ones he lost and reliving the guilt. But today, he was late because he was practicing for today's spar with Naruto till late night and overslept. During his ANBU days, he had worked greatly with tantō but had stopped using it after he left ANBU. His father's, Hatake Sakumo, signature tantō was destroyed during the Third Shinobi War but he had it repaired later. Seeing Naruto carrying a wazikashi on his back, he wanted to oil up his Kenjutsu skills.

Arriving at the meeting point, Kakashi was greeted with rather unique sight. Kiba and Akamaru were sleeping peacefully under a tree. Sakura was sitting beside Kiba, holding her knees near her chest and was taking regular glances of her crush's face, who was sprawled on the ground in front of her. Near them, the earth looked burned up. Figuring something bad happened with the Uchiha, he looked around for any signs of blond-special Jounin but found none.

"Lost something, Hatake-san?" came a voice from behind. Turning around, with a hand on his tantō, Kakashi found himself staring in the blue-slit eyes of the said blond Jounin. Naruto was crouching on the branch behind him, his sealing book closed in his hand.

'Where did he come from? I didn't even sense him here.' Thought Kakashi, his visible eye widened.

"Did something happen here, Naruto-san?" asked Kakashi.

"Nothing much, Hatake-san." Said Naruto, opening his book. "Uchiha-san just got too excited during team warm up exercises and almost killed his teammates. I had to suppress his chakra using seal." He continued.

Hatake wanted to argue back for harming one of his students but hearing that Sasuke almost killed his other two students, he didn't mouth his words. "Fair enough, please remove the seal off Sasuke so that 'I' can start with their test." Said Kakashi, making it clear that only he will conduct the genin test. Naruto bore his Draconian eyes on Kakashi for a moment before he **shunshin **to Sasuke and peeled off the seal.

Seeing Sasuke stir, Sakura and Kiba stood up. Sitting up straight, Sasuke found himself staring in the blue-slit eyes that he had come to despise recently. As the memories of his sudden defeat came back, he clenched his fist and jumped at Naruto to strike him but his fist was stopped by Kakashi.

"Alright Hatake-san, I take my leave." Said Naruto as turned around to leave. Before he could leave using a **Shunshin**, Kakashi called him from behind.

"Wait, Naruto-san. Let's have a spar after the test. Shall we?"

"Sure I'll be around." Said Naruto as he disappeared with a puff of smoke.

"So what happened here?" asked Kakashi authoritatively as he turned to face genin members of team 7. He kept holding to Sasuke's fist as Sakura and Kiba dictated the incident. He knew that Naruto had purposely taunted Sasuke but the way Sasuke reacted was way too reckless. He should have failed the team right away because of his Sasuke's actions but the stubborn council members are forcing him to pass and train the last loyal Uchiha.

"The way you acted was careless. Acting without thinking properly is unbecoming for a ninja. I could have failed you right away but Sakura and Kiba shouldn't suffer because of you." Said Kakashi as he released Sasuke from his grip.

"As we have wasted enough time already." Said Kakashi, ignoring other's sweat drop expression, "Let's start with the test." He said as he took out two bells from his kunai pouch.

"What are they for, Kakashi sensei?" asked Kiba as his stomach growled due to hunger.

Giving an eye-smile, Kakashi spoke, "This is a bell test. I have two bells with me. You have time till noon to take these from me. Those who takes them will pass and can eat lunch I have brought with me. The genin without the bell by the end of the time will be tied to the pole and first see his or her teammates eating lunch and then will sent back to the academy."

"That's cruel Kakashi-sensei." Mumbled Sakura as her stomach growled too. She didn't even have dinner the previous night because of dieting.

"Well then, let's start with the test." Said Kakashi, as he tied the bells to his waist.

"HAJIME."

-0-

Naruto took his seat on one of the branch of tree in the training ground to watch the events in the exam unfold. As soon as the exam started, all genin ran and quickly hid in the nearby trees.

'At least they know when and how to hide.' Thought Naruto, even though he could sense them easily. Kiba's chakra was too excited along with Akamaru, typically wild Inuzuka. Sasuke's chakra emotions were controlled but there was again some anger and malice stuck with it. They looked almost glued to it. And Sakura was too tensed and scared.

'A book type perhaps. And with her advanced chakra control and intelligence level she could become a good Iryonin.' Thought Naruto.

Only an hour had left and nobody had shifted from their hiding place. Hatake had sit under a tree and was leisurely reading his orange smut. Naruto saw Kakashi shifting a bit as he left his body under the left arm till the waist unguarded from any attack from behind the tree.

'A bait. Hatake-san is getting bored. Now who will buy this among the three?' thought Naruto as he turned his attention towards the three genin. All three have seen Kakashi's unguarded position and were contemplating their move.

Sure enough, there was a rustling in the bushes where Kiba was hiding with Akamaru and a spinning vortex shot of it, heading straight for Kakashi.

"**Tsūga (Passing Fang)**"

Naruto saw the attack hitting 'Kakashi' head-on, tearing through it, only for 'Kakashi' to poof into a wood log. '**Kawarimi no Jutsu (Substitution Technique)**, fooling fresh academy graduates with an academy level technique. That's reasonable.' Thought Naruto.

"Aah, where did he go?" shouted Kiba as he looked left and right. Akamaru jumped out of his jacket and started sniffing around. Kiba too, using the **Shikyaku no Jutsu (Four legs technique)**, followed Akamaru's lead.

"Whip. Whip!" barked Akamaru.

"What do you mean 'I cannot smell him anywhere'? He is somewhere around here." Replied Kiba as he continued searching the silver haired Jounin. After two minutes, Kiba too stood up, his search fruitless.

"You are right. He seemed to have disappeared. If he is not around us or above us then where is he?" asked Kiba. Suddenly, Kiba's eyes widened as the earth under his feet rumbled a bit.

"Oh, Shit! Akamaru jump!" shouted Kiba. The ground under his feet erupted and the Jounin jumped out at Kiba, his hands positioned in tiger-seal. Akamaru was lucky but Kiba was hit by the strange attack that followed. Everyone in the ground had their eyes widened in shock and disgust when Kakashi inserted his pointed fingers into Kiba's ass, propelling him like a rocket.

"**Sennen Goroshi (One Thousand Years of Death)."**

"AAAHHH!" shouted Kiba, holding his buttocks as he fell face down into the flowing stream. Akamaru barked in worry as it ran to Kiba to check on him.

'A strange and unconventional technique but must be painful with the chakra Hatake-san used.' Reasoned Naruto. 'And if instead of fingers, user uses a kunai with an explosive tag, it could result into a lethal hit at a blind spot.'

'What is Kakashi-sensei doing?' thought Sakura, hidden in the bushes.

'**I think he is a pedophile. Interested in little boys.**' Reasoned Inner-Sakura.

'Do you think he might do that to Sasuke-kun?' thought Sakura worriedly.

'**Cha! We can't have him defile our Sasuke-kun now, can we?**' thought Inner-Sakura, cracking her knuckles.

Strengthening her will to protect her crush, Sakura jumped out of her hiding place to ambush Kakashi, who was still standing in his pointed-fingers pose. As she neared him to punch, Kakashi body dispersed into leaves as soon as she made a contact with him. The leaves began spinning around her and completely enveloped her body.

"Help me! Sasuke-kun! Help me!" shouted Sakura but found her shouts muffled because of leaves covering her mouth. She continued to struggle for some time before the leaves fell off. Falling to her knees, she quickly tried to regain her breath.

'What the hell was that? I thought that I was going to die. What the hell have I gotten myself into?' Thought Sakura.

'**And me too. But we are safe. And where did Kakashi-sensei go?**' reasoned Inner-Sakura. Her answer came as she heard screaming, which definitely sounded like Sasuke, from deep within the woods.

"Oh no! Sasuke-kun!" she shouted as she ran in the woods. Naruto saw from afar how Kakashi had ensnared Sakura in a genjutsu when she came in to punch him. He had thought that she was smart enough to detect such a low level genjutsu. But because of fear riding over her emotions, she had fallen right into the trap laid by Kakashi.

Sakura quickly ran through the woods towards the source of the scream. As she neared a small clearing, she saw Sasuke lying face down on the ground with a kunai sticking out of his ass screaming out in pain.

"SASUKE-KUN!" screamed Sakura, as she ran towards her injured crush, tears threatening to fall off her eyes. She quickly sat near Sasuke's head and tried to put his head on her lap.

"Please don't die, Sasuke-kun! Please don't leave me!" she cried.

"Sakura! Help me! Please take the kunai out!" cried 'Sasuke'. Nodding her head, she looked towards the target of Kakashi's kunai. She had secretly checked out Sasuke's ass many times in the past few years but this was the time she didn't want to look at it. Her trembling hands slowly gripped the handle of the kunai as she tried to pull out the weapon.

"AAAHHH!" screamed 'Sasuke' as the kunai was ripped out of his ass. Blood gushed out the wound and drenched Sakura's hands. Sakura saw Sasuke's eyes slowly closing because of the blood loss and became unconscious.

"Sasuke-kun! Sasuke-kun, wake up! Don't leave me!" cried Sakura as she tried to shake Sasuke up. Getting no response, Sakura assumed the worst possible case.

"SASUKE-KUN!" she shouted last time before she fainted.

"Looks like the status of the 'best' is handed out to anybody at the Academy." Mumbled Naruto to himself as he turned his attention to the last genin member of the team 7.

-0-

Sasuke just grunted as he heard Sakura shouting his name again. He was having a headache ever since he woke up and now Sakura's screams were just increasing the pressure up on his head.

'Aaaahhh! Why is she screaming now? Stupid, annoying girl. At least good riddance from her and the stupid mutt.' He thought as he looked at the clearing from one of the tree branches. He was looking at his silver-haired team instructor who was leisurely sitting and reading an orange book under the shade of a tree. His other teammates had been taken down and now he had one good chance to prove that he and the Uchiha clan were not to be taken lightly.

Seeing that Kakashi wasn't moving from his place, Sasuke took out three shurikens and threw them towards the Jounin. It surprised him a bit that Kakashi didn't provide any resistance when all three shuriken hit him. His question was answered when Kakashi suddenly poofed to be a wooden log.

'Huh!? **Kawarimi no Jutsu (Substitution Technique)?** But when did he …' before Sasuke could complete his thought process, a tantō was placed near his neck by Kakashi from behind. Seeing the danger, Sasuke quickly formed a hand sign and substituted himself with the same wooden log Kakashi used.

'At least he is a competent genin.' Thought Kakashi. 'Let's see what else can he do?' Kakashi's instincts suddenly went off sensing an attack coming towards him. Turning around, he came face-to-face with a large fireball. Acting quickly, Kakashi **shunshin** himself out of the fireball range leaving the nearby trees to bear the brunt of the attack.

'His skills are already that of a Chūnin. No genin could have chakra capacity to perform such a technique.' Thought Kakashi. Looking towards the source of the attack, he saw Sasuke rushing towards him with an intent to battle hand-to-hand.

'Let's see how the rookie of the year fare in taijutsu.' Thought Kakashi, as he intercepted a right hook attack with his left arm. Using that as a pivot, Sasuke jumped to deliver a left leg kick on Kakashi's masked face but was caught by Kakashi's free right hand. Before Sasuke could free himself, Kakashi slammed his both hand palms in Sasuke's stomach, sending him tumbling back.

Quickly regaining his bearing, Sasuke took out a kunai and went in for an attack again. Seeing the kunai, Kakashi unsheathed the tantō strapped on his back and parried away the first strike aimed towards his right shoulder. They both kept themselves engaged in the combat for five minutes. Getting frustrated, Sasuke suddenly stroked Kakashi with an upper slash, leaving Kakashi no time to defend. Sensing danger, Kakashi stretched his hands upwards as he attempted a back somersault but left the bells around his waist unguarded. Sasuke tried to take benefit of the situation but was only able to brush the bells with his fingers as Kakashi's foot struck him in the chin. Both were sent tumbling away from each other. As they stood up to strike each other again, they were stopped by the sound of the alarm bell ring signifying the end of the test.

'Sasuke is good. Even though I wasn't trying hard, he pushed me quite a bit. I almost lost the bells for a moment. But he didn't incorporate teamwork in this test. In fact, none of the three did. I think I have to fail them.' Thought Kakashi. He saw Sasuke grumbling to himself. Kiba came to them holding his butt, groaning at every step. Akamaru was walking beside him with a sad look on its face. Sakura was nowhere to be seen. Kakashi was about to leave to find her when with a puff of smoke, Naruto appeared beside him carrying an unconscious Sakura bridal style. He slowly kept her down and applied **Iryojutsu (medical ninjutsu)** to her forehead. After few seconds, she suddenly woke up with a start.

"SASUKE-KUN!" she screamed, as she tried to shake herself off Naruto's strong grip. Seeing the need of an explanation, Kakashi walked up to her and placed his hand on her shoulder to calm her down. Seeing Kakashi's face and remembering what happened earlier with Kiba and Sasuke, she shook Kakashi's hand off her shoulder and tried to hide herself behind the crouched Naruto, who was watching everything with mild amusement.

"Get away from me!" she cried, "You defiled and killed Sasuke-kun!"

"Nothing like that happened, Sakura!" explained Kakashi, with an eye-smile. "What you saw out there happening to Sasuke was all genjutsu. A very basic technique." Sakura's eyes widened hearing this. Sasuke was alive and still chaste. Looking around, she saw him sitting near the wooden log, all angry and brooding. Before she could figure out the reason of his behaviour, Kakashi's last words caught her attention.

"It is a shame, really. Even after being the top _kunoichi_ of the year in the academy with great chakra control, you couldn't even sense a basic C-rank genjutsu." Said Kakashi. Sakura lowered her head with shame. Kakashi's head then turned towards Kiba who somehow had managed to sit on the ground, albeit in a weird position.

"Kiba, you were too reckless and attacked head-on. You are trained to be a ninja. Try not to attack head-on. And work with your team." Said Kakashi. Kiba, hearing this, could only groan and look away.

"And Sasuke," said Kakashi, getting the attention of the brooding Uchiha, "you need to learn to work with your team. No matter how hard you try, you had no chance to defeat me. Your skills are noteworthy but you lack experience." Unable to hide his anger, Sasuke pointed his finger towards Naruto.

"Then what about him, Kakashi-sensei?" asked Sasuke. "He is also as old as me. Why is he a Jounin and I, a genin?" Naruto raised an eyebrow at the question. He decided to give a blow to the Uchiha pride. Before Kakashi could reply, Naruto spoke up.

"I became a genin when I was five and I have been doing missions since then. And I have quality experience to back up my skills. So don't go around challenging and pointing fingers at someone who is way ahead of you." replied Naruto with a cold edge in his voice. Team 7 except their sensei could only stare at him in bewilderment. They couldn't imagine someone so young being this skilled. While Kakashi gave Naruto a calculative look.

'He is a true prodigy. I have to be careful in our next spar.' Thought Kakashi. He quickly pulled himself out of his thoughts and turned towards his team.

"Alright, team 7! Since you failed to take the bells from me, you all … FAIL!" declared Kakashi. "Now you can all go back to the academy and think about the reason of your failure." All three genin had a betrayed look on their faces. Naruto was amused by the fact that the team containing the top students of the academy had failed miserably. He knew if they went back to academy, they won't learn anything new than they already knew. Sakura might decide to quit being a ninja and go back to civilian life but the boys of the team 7 were quite arrogant and prideful to quit. Also, Naruto knew about Kakashi, who was being pressurised by the council elders to pass and tutor the last loyal Uchiha. So he decided to help the genin before it was too late.

"Hatake-san, I don't think they performed badly enough for you to fail them. With little assistance, I think they can become quite formidable." Said Naruto.

"But Naruto, they didn't even perform together. They know nothing about teamwork." Retorted Kakashi.

"What do you expect from fresh genin, Hatake-san? They can't be flawless on their first task as a team." Replied Naruto. "If you would have given them some guidance before beginning the test, I know they would have performed better." The genin were cheering for Naruto in their minds, even Sasuke. They could see a glint of hope in Naruto's argument.

"What do you suggest then, Naruto?" asked Kakashi?

"Now that we are going to have a spar, let's place a bet. If I am able to remove the mask off your face within an hour, Team 7 passes. If I lose, team 7 loses and also I will give you one A-rank Doton technique I created."

Kakashi saw Naruto with a calculative gaze. He couldn't see any hidden motive. The stakes were high. He didn't believe that he could lose to a wet-behind-the-ear Jounin, where he was a Full Jounin for so long. Also with an A-rank technique, the bet was not worth rejecting.

"Alright then! I accept your challenge. Don't run away if you lose the bet." Said Kakashi, cracking his knuckles.

"You don't need to worry about that." Said Naruto as he created a **Kage Bunshin** to act as a proctor.

Creating distance from team 7, who were sitting near the wooden logs, the two Jounin stood facing each other. Naruto slowly unsheathed his wazikashi as Kakashi took out his tantō from his back. Even from distance, the genin could feel the pressure of the battle. Both took their respective stances as they waited for the proctor to give the signal.

The Kage Bunshin stood between them as it checked both competitors. "This spar will last one hour. Everything except killing and maiming is allowed. The battle will end when the time limit is up or when either of the competitor has given up or fallen unconscious. Are both the competitors ready?" asked the Bunshin. Both Naruto and Kakashi gave a subtle nod as they tightened their grip around their weapons.

"3…2…1…HAJIME!"

-0-


	9. The Clash of Ninjas

**Senju Naruto- The Rise of a Hero**

**Chapter 9 - The Clash of Ninjas**

**Inspired by 'The Hope of the Senju Clan' by Aragon Potter**

"…"–talking

'…'-thinking

""**-Demon/Inner Sakura/Jutsu**

**Naruto does not belong to me.**

-0-

**Hokage's Office**

Hiruzen was excited. Even though there was tons of paperwork lying on his desk, waiting to be reviewed by him. Reason being, new genin teams were joining Konoha's forces that day. New generation always thrilled the old Kage. They will be new torchbearers of the 'Will of Fire', which had guided Konoha in the times of war and peace. They were always meant to surpass the older generations. And the prospect of watching new heroes rise always excited Hiruzen.

There was also a secondary reason for his excitement. One of his top Jounin and the student of the Fourth Hokage, Hatake Kakashi, was about to fight with the Senju heir. His rival Danzō, who never commended anyone easily, had literally sung praises of Naruto. According to what he had been told, Naruto was a prodigy in the league of Uchiha Itachi, or even better than him. Though Naruto's repertoire was unique and versatile, Hiruzen would bet on his silver-haired Jounin today. Wasting no time, Hiruzen quickly lit up his tobacco pipe, took out the crystal ball from one of the desk drawer and focused it on training ground 7, where the two said Jounins were standing in their respective Kenjutsu stances, waiting for the proctor clone to begin.

**Training Ground 7**

All genin of Team 7 were holding their breaths. The duel between their Jounin sensei would decide their career as a ninja. Being new, they had never seen a true one-on-one shinobi fight. Of course they had few practical sparring session themselves in the academy but they knew that this fight would be way more epic. Sasuke was intrigued and was cursing himself for not having a **Sharingan** to copy some moves for his own training.

Kakashi was taking deep, controlled breaths as he readied his stance for the duel. Though he believed in his abilities and experience and not wanting to use his implanted **Sharingan**, he was having a weird gut feeling for this fight. Being a child prodigy himself, he also felt excited about fighting someone like him. He was already planning to pass his team through some other test but this way was fine too. Also, high stakes of this duel was a plus along with the analysis of Naruto's skills for the Hokage and himself.

"Hajime!" shouted the clone proctor.

As soon as the announcement went off, the two opponents ran towards each other with the intent of first hit. To the genin audience, they seemed like a blur. One moment, they were standing 20 meters apart the next moment, they were at arm's length.

Being the shorter opponent, Naruto did an overhead block to the downward slash of Kakashi's tantō. Kakashi kept the force in his attack to push down Naruto. Seeing his disadvantage, Naruto quickly raised his right knee to perform a front kick with textbook perfection, hitting Kakashi in his stomach. Kakashi grunted before bursting with a puff of smoke.

Sensing danger from back, Naruto quickly crouched to prevent Kakashi from stabbing him in his shoulder and performed a rear spinning low kick and sent Kakashi spinning away.

"**Konoha Reppū (Leaf Gale).**"

Kakashi somehow managed to balance himself in the air and landed on his feet. 'That kick was hard and fast. It's hard to stand straight with my right leg injured.' Thought Kakashi. 'He uses the same attacking style as Guy.'

"So you use **Gōken (Strong First), **huh**. **One of my Jonin friend uses the same style." Said Kakashi.

"Might Guy, Konoha's Taijutsu specialist." Added Naruto, with neutral emotion.

"So you know him. He likes challenges. He would love to spar with you. You are pretty good. Those two kicks were perfectly done. I think I would need to go full on." Said Kakashi as he removed the headband from his left eye, showing the three-tomoe **Sharingan **to the world.

"What the hell is that red eye?" shouted Kiba.

"That's the **Sharingan, **Kiba-baka. The famed dōjutsu of the Uchiha Clan. One of the legendary three dojutsu. But why does Kakashi-sensei have it?" asked Sakura, her head turning towards the last member of the said clan. Instead of receiving cool comments from her crush, she saw Sasuke scowling at Kakashi and leaking killer intent, making her shift a bit away from him.

'How does Kakashi have **Sharingan?** Why wasn't I told before about it?' brooded Sasuke, his first tight.

Back in the fight, both fighters got back in their respective Kenjutsu stances. Kakashi's **Sharingan** analyzed its opponent and tried to perceive his moves. Both ninjas dashed again to clash with each other. Sparks erupted as the two weapons met each other. They both continued their attack for 20 minutes. Where Kakashi's attacks were based more on speed, Naruto used strength to counter any attack his opponent sent towards him.

"Man, they are so fast. I could only see the blurs and sparks when they clash with each other." Said Kiba, both him and Sakura trying to follow their movement.

'They are so strong. I need to be stronger than them to defeat _him._' Mused Sasuke.

Kakashi was impressed. Even though he had an upper hand when the fight had started, he was slowly losing ground to Naruto's strength based attacks. His arms were numb from countering Naruto. He planned to up this battle to gain the edge over Naruto and stated channelling chakra into his tantō, making it glow white.

Naruto had only read about Hatake Sakumo, the famed 'Konoha's White Fang', and his use of **Hakkō Chakura Tō (White Light Chakra Sabre)** which made him famous during the Second Shinobi War. It was quite fascinating to see the move used by the same man's son in person. He wanted to analyze the strength of that attack.

As Kakashi swung down tantō, a streak of white chakra followed the strike. Naruto managed to block the swing but the white chakra had hit him directly on the torso, which made him step back a bit and gave him a large cut from his left shoulder to just above his stomach.

"Naruto-sensei!" shouted Sakura. She had never imagined a spar would go this far. In academy, spar got over before anybody got seriously hurt. And that hit on her young sensei looked fatal. Kiba and Sasuke were shocked too with the level of fight going on right now.

They forgot to look at Kakashi, who too looked unfocused and distraught from the look of his eyes. From the level of skills that Naruto had displayed, he could have easily dodged this attack. Since their spar had begun, they both have been trying to attack each other on the key points of the body. And that attack was very close to the heart.

Before he could sink further down his sorrow and start blaming himself for Naruto's condition, a sudden blur moved towards him and there was a cut on his mask, from under his right eyes till his jawline, so skillful that it didn't even cut the skin. Kakashi's eyes widened as he turned to look at his assailant, just to find Naruto standing with his wazikashi in right hand. His healed torso was completely visible from the cut of his blue Jonin jacket.

'How has he healed so quickly? Is this because of Kyuubi?' thought Kakashi as he slowly regained his focus.

"How is Naruto-sensei moving around with that sort of wound?" shouted Kiba, eyes too wide to shut down.

"Don't you see that? His wound is completely healed. And how is that even possible?" screeched Sakura.

"What trickery is this? How is that Senju even doing it?" gritted Sasuke.

"You should focus more on the spar, Kakashi-san. Such careless and unfocused attitude is unbecoming for the _Copy Ninja Kakashi._" Said Naruto as he sheathed back his wazikashi. "What do you say? Should we move on to Ninjutsu?"

"Alright." Said Kakashi, as he sheathed back his blade. At the click of the blade going back in its sheath, both ninjas dashed towards each other. Naruto shook his right hand and threw two shuriken, which seemingly appeared from nowhere, towards Kakashi and quickly performed few hand signs.

"**Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique).**"

Two shuriken became two hundred, all charging towards Kakashi. He quickly took action and slapped both his hands on the ground after forming few hand signs.

"**Doton: Doryūheki (Earth-release: Earth-style Wall)**"

A big, brick-structured wall composed of bulldog sculptures now stood in front of Kakashi blocking the shuriken attack. Sensing the chakra from beneath the ground, Naruto quickly took guard and did a back somersault to escape the hands which came out of the ground.

Seeing his attack fail, Kakashi quickly came out of the ground and started forming hand seals along with gathering Katon Chakra in his lungs. Forming the last tiger seal, Kakashi released the chakra in the form of small and unpredictable fireballs.

"**Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu (Fire release: Phoenix Flower Jutsu)"**

Because of the unpredictable nature of the fireballs, Naruto decided to face them head-on rather than dodge it. Forming tiger seal on the right and snake seal on the left hand, Naruto started flicking away the fireballs which came his way, neutralizing them with the chakra gathered on his hands.

"How is he flicking away the fire? I want to learn that! Then I will show Sasuke-teme who's the boss!" shouted Kiba, his eyes burning with excitement.

'So he is gathering Suiton-chakra in his left hand and Doton-chakra on his right to diffuse my attack.' Analyzed Kakashi, using his **Sharingan**. 'That requires very precise chakra control. And he can do two nature-manipulations at such a young age. I wonder how he became this good with his chakra with the amount he has. He looks like a miniature sun to the **Sharingan**.'

Having enough with being on backfoot, Naruto formed a tiger hand seal and channeled his chakra into the ground towards Kakashi.

"**Doton: Doryū Taiga (Earth Release: Earth Flow River)**"

Kakashi quickly jumped away on the ground as he felt a spike of chakra from beneath him. Instead of landing on a hard ground, his feet got stuck in a river of mud almost making him lose his balance. Not waiting for Kakashi to recover, Naruto quickly formed 3 more hand signs and fired his chakra.

"**Doton: Doryūdan (Earth Release: Earth Dragon Bomb)**"

'He doesn't even look winded after using such chakra-taxing technique.' Mused Kakashi.

"Naruto-sensei is so cool, you guys!" Shouted Kiba with starry eyes.

A huge dragon-like head rose from the mud river and fired mud bullets towards Kakashi. To hasten up the attack, Naruto formed fast hand seals and released yet another jutsu.

"**Futon: Daitoppa (Wind Release: Great Breakthrough)**"

'Wind release? He is capable of using three of them? But I should better do something before I get hit by this combination. I cannot even see the earth bombs without using **Sharingan**.' Thought Kakashi.

The powerful gust released by the wind made the earth bullets blindingly fast. As the attack hit home, impaling Kakashi where he was standing, Naruto knew that it couldn't be that easy. When the attack stopped, Naruto saw that there was a mud clone in place of Kakashi. Sensing a sudden chakra spike from behind, Naruto turned around and saw Kakashi, standing on the river, performing the last hand seals of a jutsu he clearly knew about.

"**Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu (Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique)**"

The amount of water present around Kakashi quickly took shape of a giant dragon which charged towards Naruto. Sensing the impeding danger and nowhere to dodge the attack, Naruto molded water chakra in his body and expelled a huge, torrent of water out of his mouth to barricade the coming dragon attack.

"**Suiton: Suijinchū (Water Release: Water formation pillar)**"

With the amount of water expelled by Naruto, the dragon jutsu of Kakashi was easily overpowered and flooded the river. Kakashi stumbled back seeing his high level jutsu being overpowered so easily. And from the look of things, Kakashi's chakra was almost over because of all the dodging he did using **Sharingan **and Naruto didn't even look winded. The combination attack Naruto did earlier could have badly injured him if it was not for his **Sharingan.** He could only think of one logical idea.

"I forfeit!" said Kakashi.

"Winner by Forfeit, Senju Naruto!" shouted the proctor clone from his position before bursting up.

Naruto lips curved up from the sides as he saw Kakashi slowly walking towards him and covering his left eye. He could not sense much chakra in him and knew that the elder Jonin was about to faint. He performed few hand seals and returned the ground back to its former glory and pushed the water back to the river. It didn't even look like there was any spar there.

"You all can come out now!" shouted Naruto, looking at the trees. A group of ninjas, namely Sarutobi Asuma, Yūhi Kurenai and Might Guy jumped out of the tress.

"How long have they been here?" questioned Sakura? Team 7 genin were still dazed from the fight, they had forgotten to check the extra company they got during the spar.

"They have been since the spar began. Seems like you had pre-planned this event, Kakashi-san." Replied Naruto, as he turned to face the dog-tired Jounin, standing on his last legs. Sighing, Naruto took out a small paper seal from his kunai pouch and unsealed it. Inside of it were three small tablets, with some dull green material swirling inside them. He took one out presented it to Kakashi, who was looking at it curiously.

"Eat it. I made it myself. It will return your body to full power and then some." Said Naruto. Kakashi was doubtful. He looked around to check the expressions of those gathered around them. His genin were looking confused, the Jounins looked apprehensive, their hands creeping slowly towards their weapon pouches. Looking back at Naruto in his blue, slit eyes for some sign of honesty or lie, he found none.

'What's the worst that could happen?' thought Kakashi, as he took the tablet and put it into his mouth. At the first crunch, the feeling of euphoria washed over him. It eased his bodily pain, cured his injuries and started filling his empty chakra reserves and left a flavour of peppermint in the mouth.

"What is this thing? My wounds are healed and my chakra is replenished too. I feel great. Rather better than great." Said Kakashi. The Jounins and ANBU relaxed their posture. The result in Kakashi's state was clearly visible. He stood straight, didn't look worn out. Then suddenly, Kakashi stumbled a bit, making everyone vigilant again.

"What's happening? My body is one fire." Said Kakashi, as he fell on his knees.

"How exactly are you feeling?" asked Naruto nonchalantly, ignoring the glares and weapons pointed at him.

"Like I have opened **Hachimon (The Eight Gates). **Five of them." Replied Kakashi hoarsely.

"Hmm, so my assumption was correct." Concluded Naruto. "Alright Kakashi-san, please keep your **Sharingan** open for the rest of the day, you will feel fine." Once Kakashi compiled the request, he felt a little better as the dojutsu started draining the excess chakra. As Naruto neared his hand towards Kakashi's face to check his temple, a green blur passed the gathering heading towards Naruto.

"**Dynamic Entry**"

Naruto raised his left arm just to block an oncoming jump kick aimed for his face. Looking around the kick, Naruto immediately recognized the bowl-cut hairstyle of the attacker.

"What is going on now?" shouted Sakura, holding her head. Even the rest of her team was shocked at the speed the above mentioned even happened.

"What is the meaning of this, Guy-san?" Asked Naruto monotonously. " Attacking a fellow Konoha-nin outside a spar is a serious offence." Sensing danger, Naruto backed away before he was attacked by a pair of trench knives from the right.

"You too, Asuma-san?" accused Naruto, as a cut appeared on Naruto's right cheek. Everyone present there saw the cut disappearing as soon as it appeared. Before Naruto could continue speaking, a tree grew out behind him and trapped him in its coil-like branches.

"**Magen: Jubaku Satsu (Demonic Illusion: Tree Binding Death)**"

Naruto saw his third attacking shinobi, or rather a red-eyed kunoichi, emerging out like one of the branches and held out a kunai to his throat.

"What were you going do to Kakashi? Tell us NOW!" interrogated Kurenai, pressing the kunai harder to his throat. Instead of answering, Naruto locked his blue slit eyes to her red-ringed ones, starting a staring contest to check who's dominant. Kurenai too accepted the challenge with full-fervour but soon found her efforts wavering. It was hard to look in those blue-eyes of the blonde Jounin. So much anger, pain and suffering was locked in those eyes, along with boundless power. Enough to destroy the village within few seconds and she was feeling some sort of satisfaction imaging that.

Shaking her head to get rid of those thoughts, she found her genjutsu breaking. Concentrating back at Naruto, she found him supporting a frown on his face.

"Though the genjutsu application was satisfactory, the interrogation attempt was pathetic, almost insignificant. You almost started to sympathize with Me." scolded Naruto. "Please don't try it again in your life, Kurenai-san." Kurenai face contorted into a snarl when she heard him criticize her skills. Feeling no remorse, she took the kunai and lodged it right into Naruto's left shoulder, shocking everyone present.

"Kurenai! No!" shouted Asuma, Gai and Kakashi, as they ran to stop their female co-ninja but knew it was too late now.

"Naruto sensei!" screamed Kiba and Sakura as they threw up, their mind overloaded with the blood and gore.

Oddest of all was Naruto, who didn't even flinch when the kunai was embedded in his shoulder, breaking his collar bone in the process. He just tried to feel what Kurenai was feeling. She felt happy with her work but soon that was replaced by the feeling of remorse and regret as her trembling body was caught by the other present Jounins. Seeing what had transpired, Naruto could do only one thing. He laughed.

What began as a low, rumbling laugh soon turned into rambunctious roar. It was so loud that even the nearby trees shook. Birds and animals fled away from their homes in fear of a homing predator. Akamaru whined as he tried to hide behind Kiba's legs. It went on for two minutes before Naruto abruptly stopped, took the embedded kunai out of his shoulder in a swift move and threw the bloody kunai near the shaking feet of the red-eyed kunoichi. There was a loud cracking sound of bones joining together before the hole in the shoulder closed up, showing a smooth, unblemished skin.

"I am sorry to say that my respect for the shinobi of Konohagakure has gone down to the bare minimum and I feel embarrassed being one of you. I am sure this is not what the First Hokage and the Second Hokage had in their minds when they created this shinobi settlement." said Naruto with pity. "As for the earlier explanation about Kakashi's condition, I would have told you all about it if you had simply asked. But now I would only give the description to Hokage-sama as you have showed incompetent skills as Jounin. I know he is watching all this from his crystal ball. If you want, you can ask him about the details."

Ignoring the crestfallen looks of the Jounin faces, Naruto turned to face team 7 who had seen the whole event turning from simple spar to a fiasco.

"Alright, Team 7. Sorry for all the events that transpired after the spar. And congratulations for becoming the official genin. We will meet again when Kakashi-san schedule the next meeting. Till then, _Ja ne_ (See Ya)." Said Naruto. The genin could only nod before Naruto disappeared in a swirl of leaves. They then turned to face their actual silver-haired sensei who, along with the other Jounin, was removing the restraints they had put on Yūhi Kurenai. They all suddenly looked up hearing a loud bird call, which the Jounin realized was the call from the Hokage.

"Alright team 7, we will meet here tomorrow here at 7:30am for your first mission." Said Kakashi hurriedly.

"Wait Kakashi-sensei! What about you…" Sasuke's question was left incomplete as his sensei along with the other Jounin disappeared using **Shunshin no Jutsu**.

The Uchiha grunted for being so openly ignored. He kicked the ground in frustration before he began walking towards his empty clan house. Kiba shook himself out of his thoughts as he picked Akamaru between his coat's zip and started walking towards his clan house, thinking about what had transpired. Being stuck on which way to go, Sakura's heart won out as she started heading with the Uchiha and pestered him with the dating questions.

-0-

Hiruzen tightly gripped his tobacco pipe as he tried to settle his nerves sitting in the meeting room of the Hokage's Residence. He was planning it to be a great day and had never expected such outcome. His silver-haired Jounin was sparring with the Senju heir as he had ordered. He never thought that he would lose but he could clearly see Naruto's skill and stamina, which surpassed Kakashi. Then Naruto had given some medicine to Kakashi that replenished chakra like soldier pill but also healed the battle wounds. He was certainly very intrigued by it and wanted to know more about it before his other Jounin attack Naruto, despite Naruto telling them that they were committing an offence. And Kurenai's attack was so illogical, it frustrated the old Hokage the more he thought about it. So he waited for the Jounin to show up as they must have received the message by now.

"You called, Hokage-sama!" chorused the saluting four Jounins gathered in front of him.

Taking a long drag, he began talking, "Kakashi, what was going on in training ground 7?" he asked, sounding old and angry. The Jounin gulped as Kakashi stepped forward and gave him a detailed report of what happened till the end of the spar.

"So you are finally an official sensei? Congratulations are in order." Said the Third Hokage, though his voice sounded restraint. "That's well and good. What would you say about Naruto's skills?"

"Naruto is extremely well-trained, Hokage-sama. He knows what to do in a battlefield, doesn't lose his focus and keeps his enemies or opponents on toes. His Kenjutsu and taijutsu are great. And he hits hard, almost like Tsunade-sama. My arms were numb after dueling with him in Kenjutsu for ten minutes. And he has extreme control on his chakra. I have never seen anybody deflecting ninjutsu by gathering chakra in their limbs. And he has some strange healing ability along with superhuman stamina. Every wound on him heals instantly. Is this because of the Kyuubi? I have no idea. I would easily rank him as a low-S rank ninja" Reported Kakashi.

"Hmm" replied Hiruzen, thinking about the First Hokage's ability of instant healing and regeneration. He can associate that with the **Mokuton (Wood Release)** but his subordinates didn't need to know about it. "So he is a sensor and can do Kenjutsu, taijutsu, and ninjutsu with three elements, fūinjutsu, Iryojutsu, and then some. That is a lot of power for a thirteen year old. As for his healing, it may be because of the Kyuubi. And you ate some tablet Naruto gave you after the fight and you felt nauseous after eating it. What about it? How are you feeling now?"

"I feel great, Hokage-sama. It actually overloaded my chakra pathways with too much chakra. So when Naruto asked me to keep the **Sharingan **open to give it some outlet, I feel great after it. I feel like keeping the eye open for all day." Replied Kakashi, his red Sharingan flaring.

"Which brings me to the next question, what were you three doing there?" asked Hiruzen, from the other three Jounin in the room. Seeing no way out, Asuma stepped forward to answer his father's question.

"We wanted to see what our fellow genin instructor is capable of to get to work with him better." Answered Asuma.

"And you decided to attack on him when he was performing check up on Kakashi? And on what ground?" instead of Asuma, Guy thought of answering that question.

"Hokage-sama, we thought that he was after Kakashi's **Sharingan**. His hand was very near to it. And from the nature of his previous master, our reasoning was justified."

"Alright, I understand that you restrained him for suspicion." Said the Hokage, his eyes closed and face turning towards Kurenai, who unconsciously shifted back. "What about you Yūhi-san? Is your final attack justified? What was the reason for it?"

"I don't know Hokage-sama." Replied Kurenai, her voice quivering. "When I restrained him and tried to interrogate him, I couldn't even look him straight in the eyes. It was frightening to see so much pain and power in his eyes. And when he criticized my skills, I felt like the Kyuubi was taunting me. My mind turned blank and I attacked Naruto." Said Kurenai, her eyes shedding tears slowly.

Hiruzen rubbed the bridge of his nose in anger and shame. The root of anger against Kyuubi runs too deep in his people, it seems. Naruto had sacrificed and endured since the first day of his life and was still dealing with anger directed at him for Kyuubi. "You know that when he said that his ancestors had not thought about this when they created the village and he felt ashamed being a part of it because of what it had become, it had hurt me a lot." Said Hiruzen, his voice so aged and fragile. "That I failed his granduncle, his grandfather, his father and even him. I feel so ashamed of myself." His Jounin lowered their head in shame. Never had they seen _The Professor _so helpless. Sighing loudly, Hiruzen gathered his emotions and addressed the gathered Jounins.

"I cannot ignore the mistake you three had committed." Said the Hokage to Asuma, Guy and Kurenai. "As such, you three will apologize to Naruto and 75% of your mission pay for a month will be given to him. All of you, dismissed."

"Hai! Hokage-sama." Saluted the Jounin before they **shunshin **away. The old Hokage took a big drag through the tobacco pipe as he waited for his next guest. He didn't have to wait long as the door of the room was knocked.

"Come in!" said the Hokage.

The door opened, revealing Naruto, wearing high neck black shirt along with same shade shinobi pants and sandals. He calmly walked to the center of the room before going down on one knee and saluting the old shinobi.

"You called, Hokage-sama." said Naruto.

"Yes, Naruto. Kakashi gave me a report about your spar with him and I should say I am impressed with the skills you have displayed." Said Hiruzen. "Your manipulation of _Doton_ and _Suiton _elements was exceptional, along with your Kenjutsu and taijutsu skills. Kakashi also told me about the energy pills you made. What are they actually?" Naruto nodded as he took out the same seal and unsealed it, taking out a single dull green pill to show to the Hokage.

"Each pill has my concentrated chakra, collected in an edible, flavoured coating. It has enough chakra to energize and heal an average First Shinobi War Jounin."

"Does it have Kyuubi's chakra too? And what do you mean average First Shinobi War Jounin?" asked the concerned Hokage.

"No. Kyuubi's chakra is potent to anyone but me. This is just my chakra. Now, even if some think that newer generation surpasses the older, that is not exactly the case." Said Naruto.

"What is the case then?" questioned Hiruzen.

"It was my assumption that most of the newer generation of ninja have lesser chakra than the previous ones. When I was developing these pills, I generally assumed the amount of chakra Danzō-sama or you had when you were Jounins during the first war, from the skills you displayed in a single battle." Started Naruto. "Now, I am a jinchūriki so I couldn't prove my assumption using the tablet on myself. So I needed a powerful Jounin to test my assumption." Seeing Hokage nod, Naruto continued, "So, when Kakashi-san ate the pill, he felt the strain for too much chakra, almost equivalent to opening five gates of **Hachimon**, telling me that he has far lesser chakra than an average Jounin of your time. The bar of standards is falling low day by day, Hokage-sama. That if somebody reincarnated the Uchiha Madara today using the Second's **Edo Tensei (Impure World Reincarnation)**, nobody can defeat him. Wasn't the Snake Sannin working with this jutsu?"

Hiruzen was in deep thought now. If he thought about it, the Fourth Hokage was considered so powerful for using the **Hiraishin no Jutsu (Flying Thunder God Technique), **even though the technique was already extensively used by its original creator, the Second Hokage, many years before and he wasn't even known much for it. They were blindly ignoring that they were growing weak. But by the current standards, they were strong.

"That is a very astute observation, Naruto. I will ponder into this concept. This needs some serious brainstorming." Said Hiruzen, his eyes widened, thinking about the result of this complication. "ANBU!"

Three masked ninjas quickly appeared before their leader. "Hokage-sama" saluted ANBU.

"Inu, take Tora and Hebi with you and make sure that every grave in Konoha graveyard is safe and sound. I want a detailed report in five days. Dismissed."

"Hai! Hokage-sama." Said ANBU before they vanished.

"This is a serious problem and it never came to my mind." Said Hokage as he closed his eyes and took a deep long drag of tobacco. Looking back at Naruto, who was silently looking back at him, a new question popped into the head of the Hokage.

"Naruto, what do you think about the team seven? Give me your conclusions about them." Asked Hiruzen. He actually wanted to know about the Uchiha heir through the blonde ninja's perspective.

Naruto quickly recapped the meetings with Team 7 in his mind to come up with some conclusions.

"Kakashi is self-confident. Uses tricks to analyze opponents in the beginning of the battle. Excellent in taijutsu, little rough around the edges in Kenjutsu, excellent in ninjutsu but chakra levels drop considerably while using **Sharingan**. Loses focus if comrades are hurt. Death of his teammates is still fresh on his mind. Kiba is impulsive. Takes pride in strength and because of the attitude of his clan, he has probably started considering me as an Alpha. Sakura is intelligent but focuses more on impressing the Uchiha rather than doing something productive. May turn into a valuable ninja if her focus is taken away from him." said Naruto, before his attention turned towards the ever-scowling Uchiha.

"Uchiha is indifferent towards his teammates. Has both a superiority and an inferiority complex. Has potential to become great, his greed for power and rage against Itachi-san will make him go against Konoha. If no proper training is provided, he will run way within a year or two in search of more power." Concluded Naruto.

-0-


	10. The Big Upcoming Mission

**Senju Naruto- The Rise of a Hero**

**Chapter 10 – The Big Upcoming Mission**

**Inspired by 'The Hope of the Senju Clan' by Aragon Potter**

"… "–talking

'…'-thinking

""**-Demon/Inner Sakura/Jutsu**

**Naruto does not belong to me.**

-0-

**Two weeks later - Forest of Death, Konohagakure**

Naruto inhaled a long breath as he tried to mold chakra in his lungs. For the past hour, he was trying to perform this jutsu but was having no definite result. Around him, hundreds of his shadow clones were doing what they were asked to do. Some were making fūinjutsu seals, some were performing chakra control exercises, some were doing elemental manipulation exercises and the rest were sparring among each other. Like Naruto, all his clones were focused on their respective tasks.

When Naruto thought he had moulded enough chakra in his lungs, he held the tiger hand-seal and released it in the direction of some trees.

"**Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu (Fire release: Great Fireball Jutsu)**"

With the chakra input of a **Doton: Doryūdan**, Naruto had imagined the fireball to be easily as big as a small house. Instead, to his disappointment, the fireball was barely bigger than his face, which frizzled out before it could even reach the tree. This was the tenth time it had happened since he had started training that morning.

'It is so hard training the nature elements for whom you don't have the affinity. I have been trying to manipulate Katon and Raiton elements since I have returned to Konoha and I have reached nowhere. It wasn't so hard while training for Doton and Suiton.' Mused Naruto, as he ran his hand through his hair. 'Is it because I have affinities in Futon and Doton that it's harder to train in elements they are weak against? Well it is something to look into.' He thought that as he picked up the towel he brought to dry himself off. Behind him, his clones dispelled themselves one-by-one, knowing the training session was finished.

As he ran back to his house to get ready for the day, Naruto replayed the events that had transpired in the past two weeks. He dedicated his first week to training, getting to know team 7 and doing some D-rank missions with training with them was going at a good pace. Every day, while they waited for Kakashi to show up, Naruto ran them through various physical training and chakra control exercises. They successfully completed the tree climbing exercise and quickly progressing through water-walking exercise. Sakura would complete the chakra control exercises very quickly because of her advanced chakra control but could not keep up with her teammates due to poor stamina. Kiba seemed to master the physical exercises better because of his clan's taijutsu based skills. Moreover, Sasuke, though very annoying, was a hard worker. Sasuke hated to take instructions from him but suppressed his ego to become stronger. Kakashi acted friendly around him and tried to treat him as he treated his genin, which he stopped after few warnings.

Naruto hated D-rank missions. They were so annoying and the clients were so non-cooperative to him. Danzō-sama had never made him do this level of missions. The lowest he had ever done was a scroll delivery when he was working for Root. Nevertheless, he kept his mouth shut, knowing that eventually they will be over.

Then he dedicated his second week with team 10. They were downright lazy, even the Jounin sensei, Sarutobi Asuma. How he became a Jounin and even managed to become one of the Twelve Guardian Ninja, Naruto could not figure it out. Chiriku, Naruto's senpai and partner during his service to Fire Daimyo, had always told him good things about the Third Hokage's son.

'Maybe Konoha has become very lax after the Third Shinobi War.' Thought Naruto, as he turned on the shower to wash away the grime gathered from the training. 'Kakashi's attitude is even worse than Asuma-san. No wonder Danzō-sama do not like what the village is becoming. I should talk to the Hokage about this.'

His first day team 10, which consisted the next generation Ino-Shika-Cho combination, was also not what he expected. He wanted to witness the teamwork this famous combination was known for. The team members of this formation were known to use their personal and clan abilities to complement the efforts and flaws of others in the group, making it a prime example of accuracy and teamwork. Moreover, Naruto did not want to miss the chance to witness it firsthand.

-0-

**Flashback**

**Team 10 training ground**

He seriously was not expecting this.

Observing from the nearby treetop, Naruto saw Nara Shikamaru and Sarutobi Asuma, playing a game of shōgi sitting in the veranda of a dojo house. Akimichi Chōji was sitting behind Shikamaru, happily observing the game and eating his potato chips. In addition, Yamanaka Ino was standing behind Asuma with an annoyed look on her face.

"Come on, Asuma-sensei! How long are we going to stay here and waste time?" pouted Ino. "Forehead and her team train every day. I do not want to lose to her. At least, let's take a mission or two!"

"Sure, Ino! We will do some training today after this game. I am almost winning today." Replied Asuma lazily as he lighted a cigarette. Ino groaned with frustration as she clenched her fists.

"You have been saying that for the past five games now. Moreover, there the forehead is getting stronger than me along with spending time with Sasuke-kun. This is so unfair." Retorted Ino before suddenly becoming attentive. Turning around, Ino looked up at the nearby tree to confirm her suspicion.

"Asuma-sensei!" whispered Ino, as her hand moved towards her kunai pouch, "I think someone is watching us."

'A sensor type.' Noted Naruto. 'Finally someone observed that they were being observed. As expected from a member of Yamanaka clan. Well, no use hiding now. I should also work more on my hiding skills.' Mused Naruto as he jumped down the tree and made his presence known to Team 10.

"Ohayo, Team 10." Greeted Naruto, bowing a little.

"Ohayo, Naruto-sensei." Greeted Chōji, still munching his chips. Shikamaru and Asuma remained silent as they observed the young Tokubetsu Jounin. Ino quickly forgot her state of panic as she rushed towards Naruto in order to cling to him, who, to everyone's surprise, did not retaliate.

"Ohayo, Naruto-kun." Greeted Ino in a sultry voice. "Where have been so long? Are you trying to ignore me?" Looking down his right shoulder at Ino, who was firmly hugging his arm, a small smile graced his face. Gazing straight into her pupil-less blue eyes with his slit-blue ones, Naruto calmly replied, "I have been busy lately. I am sorry for ignoring you, Ino-san."

A blush slowly spread on Ino's cheeks as she felt a warm feeling coming from her chest at Naruto's sincere reply. Sasuke had never replied to any of her questions ever. All he ever said were various types of grunts and brood. Moreover, here Naruto had answered her question looking straight into her eyes with his sparkling blue ones. 'His eyes are so honest and striking.' Thought Ino dreamily, 'And his lips looked so attractive when they moved.' Her face seemed to move unconsciously towards Naruto's.

The jaws of the male members of the Team 10 fell as they saw the scene unfold. Naruto internally congratulated himself. Ever since his body started undergoing pubescent changes during his time at the hidden Mist, he had often found himself stealing glances of the rebel leader from time to time. Mei's infrequent hugs apparently had become very hard for him to ignore. He had felt ashamed of his weakness but found Mei's ability to lure other males, especially Chōjūrō, seductively to do her bidding very fascinating.

Therefore, when he returned to Konoha, Naruto took it upon himself to learn more about the opposite sex and, of course, sex.

Material on the art of pleasure and sexual intercourse was readily available to him. He gathered info from bookstores, library, spying on 'lovers' roaming around in Konoha, he found the oldest art of the world to be extremely flexible and ever evolving. It had many predefined moves or 'positions', as the books mentioned, but any user can his or her own flare to it to suit themselves and their partner. Moreover, he learned that like all other fighting styles, the more you used this art, the more experienced you got.

Now the part one handled, Naruto's research now focused on learning about the psychology of the opposite sex. For some reason, the material on this subject was scarce. Whatever two-three books were found, all happened to contradict each other, leaving Naruto very confused.

-0-

**Flashback within Flashback**

Naruto walked down the street from the Hokage's office after completing few D-rank missions with team 7. He ignored the glares and forceful bows he received from general Konoha populace as he focused on the problem on his mind.

'Why is there so less information about the female human psychology? Is it because of the different observations of different authors? Or does all women instinctively behave differently?' pondered Naruto, as he came to stop near a small bookstore. Thinking about his assumptions and looking at the books at the display, Naruto's eyes settled upon a small, orange-colored book that he had seen many times recently.

'What book is this?' thought Naruto, completely forgetting his recent insoluble dilemma. 'Hokage-sama hides it in his desk drawer; Kakashi-san barely stops reading it when free. I had even seen Daimyo-sama reading it once. I have to find more about it.' Thought Naruto as he entered the bookstore to enquire from the shopkeeper. Behind the desk was a blonde, fourteen-year-old bespectacled girl who was flipping through a magazine, humming a song.

"_Konnichiwa! (Hello)_." Called Naruto. The girl looked up the magazine only to find her eyes locking with that of the blond-haired ninja, who was looking at her curiously. She somehow stopped the word 'kawaii' from reaching her lips after looking at his whisker markings but could not stop a light blush creeping on her cheeks.

"Konnichiwa, ninja-san. How may I help you?" asked the girl.

"Hai, I am interested in that orange-covered book you have kept on the display. What is it about?" enquired Naruto. He became a little confused when the redness from the girl's cheeks started spreading across her face. "Ah, are you alright?" he asked.

Shaking her head out of the fantasies it had started to create, the girl replied, "H-Hai, I am fine. Totally f-fine." She stuttered. "The book's name is _Icha-Icha Paradaisu (Make out Paradise)._ It is a romantic erotica."

Hearing this, a light bulb suddenly switched on in Naruto's mind. 'Perfect!' mused Naruto. 'It can properly tell me more about women and how they think about sex. I hope it solves the dilemma I have.' Smiling at the conclusion, Naruto turned his attention towards the blonde shopkeeper.

"This is exactly what I need." Said Naruto, opening his kunai holder to take out a black wallet. "How much is it for one copy?" asked Naruto.

"Y-you cannot buy it, ninja-san." Replied the shopkeeper, albeit shyly.

"Why is that?" asked Naruto, his brows furrowed in confusion.

"They are meant for people of 18 and above." Replied the girl. Naruto looked very confused now. He understood that people are considered adults after the age of 18. Nevertheless, what does that have to do with romantic erotica? If a person in the Shinobi villages gets sex education before they become genin around age 13, why do they wait to read the stories of same thing until 18.

"That's too long time to wait." He dispassionately said to the girl, "I don't even know if I'll even be in the world of living by that time." The blonde girl flinched by the crude statement and lowered her head, finding it hard to look into the blue eyes of the ninja.

"Tell you what," continued Naruto. "I'll pay you double the amount for the book if you sell a copy to me right now." The girl was surprised by the ninja's offer.

"I don't need extra money. If you are so interested in this book, I will sell it to you. Just don't read it in the public." Offered the girl shopkeeper. Naruto tilted his face as he felt her still being unhappy.

"That's acceptable. Thanks." replied Naruto as he took out the cash that was required for the book.

"H-Hai. What's your name, ninja-san?" asked the girl, as she fetched a copy of _Icha Icha Paradaisu_.

"Naruto. What's yours?" asked Naruto_._

"My name is Shiho. In addition, this book belongs to a series. More volumes of it will be published in the future. So if you like it, buy it from here. I might even give you some discounts," she added with a wink, as they exchanged the book and money.

"Alright then, it's a deal!" said Naruto with a small smile, as he pocketed his new book and left the store.

**Later that night, Naruto's room**

Naruto was sitting at the study table, intently reading the orange book he had bought. He was easily grasping what it said. It was the story of two characters, namely Jimaya and Tsuna. Tsuna was the daughter of some rich king and Jimaya was her knight but was born and raised in a civilian family. Then someone kidnapped the princess and then Jimaya had rescued her. Then their romance bloomed.

After reading the book twice-in one sitting, Naruto had a hang of how a woman usually reacts to seductive techniques and why their face suddenly gets red.

'Well, this book is quite informative. I have seen Mei-san doing some stuff mentioned. It also explains why Shiho-san was all flushed and winked at me. It even told which positions to use in different scenarios and ambience. Now I have to see how much of it can I put into use?' Thought Naruto as he closed the book. Looking outside through the window, he could see the orange hue of the sun rising over the horizon.

"No use sleeping now. Let's get some training done." Mumbled Naruto as he dressed up in his training clothes and jumped out of the window to work out.

**Flashback within Flashback End**

-0-

**Present, Training Ground 10, Konohagakure**

'The method mentioned in the _Icha Icha Paradaisu _seems to work fine. Shiho-san mentioned about more volumes in the series. I should pay her a visit sometime soon.' Thought Naruto as he felt Ino's face slowly getting closer to his. Naruto knew this might result into what the book mentioned as 'kissing'. He had seen various couples do it and was interested in what it felt like. However, he did not make any movement either to lean forward towards Ino.

Seeing the situation getting a little out of hand, Asuma coughed loudly in his hand thus breaking Ino out of her reverie. She blinked for a few times before she realized how close her face was to Naruto's, who was still looking at her intently. Biting her lower lip, she turned her face away from him to hide the flush of embarrassment rising on her face.

"What is it, Asuma-sensei?" grumbled Ino, a part of her angry with him for spoiling such a great moment with the blonde mystery ninja.

"Now Naruto-san is here. We can focus on the training." Replied Asuma. "Naruto-san, can you help me with the warm-up exercises?"

"Hai, Asuma-san" replied Naruto. "Alright Team 10, get ready for some training."

"But, Asuma-sensei. What about our shōgi game?" asked Shikamaru lazily, sitting cross-legged and resting his head on the palm of his right hand.

"Hai, Asuma-sensei. Let's complete the game first." Added Chōji, munching his potato chips.

"Alright then, let's finish the game first." Said Asuma, as he concentrated back at the game.

"Come on, guys! Asuma-sensei, why are you going back to the game? The game can wait. Why are you making Naruto-kun wait?" whined Ino, still holding Naruto's arm.

Naruto internally groaned at the working of this Ino-Shika-Cho combination. He was not expecting this. At this rate, they will die on their first C-rank mission. Moreover, he could not let this go on anymore.

"Ino-san, let me handle this. Please leave my arm." He asked Ino firmly. Ino left his arm and backed up a bit as Naruto marched towards the lazy Shinobi trio. He went and stood beside Asuma, who was taking a drag from the burning cigarette.

"Asuma-san, May I?" insisted Naruto, gesturing towards the shōgi board. A chill went down Asuma's spine when he looked into Naruto's stern eyes. He could only nod as Naruto quickly sat down on his heels. Everyone present observed as Naruto quickly scanned the pieces of shogi board and moved the rook ahead three squares.

"Your turn, Shikamaru-san." Called Naruto. He silently observed that Shikamaru closed his eyes and cupped his fingers and furrowed his brows in concentration.

'He is doing his focusing technique and would think of ten moves ahead.' Mused Asuma. 'Let's see if Naruto can handle this.'

Shikamaru stayed like that for half a minute and then moved his bishop one square diagonally. He was about to give Naruto a challenging smile but almost faltered as Naruto quickly moved his King one square diagonally ahead.

'This is a rash and unexpected move, thinking of moving his King so early in the game.' Thought Shikamaru, as he went back to his focusing stance. Naruto almost groaned as Shikamaru took another 30 seconds and then moved one of his rook one square ahead.

They continued this for a dozen more turns until finally, Naruto moved his Gold general and positioned it diagonally in front of Shikamaru King.

"_Tsumi (Checkmate)._" Called Naruto. Everyone except Naruto were wide-eyed now. Shikamaru, one of the smartest person they had ever met, was defeated in a game of Shogi in less than fifteen moves.

"…How? What happened?" stammered Chōji, his last potato chip stuck in the midway between the packet and his mouth.

"I…lost." Stuttered Shikamaru. "One more game, Naruto-sensei?"

"No. You are too slow to make moves." Replied Naruto plainly. "If an enemy attack you during a mission, your team would be dead even before you come up with a plan." He said, ignoring the wide-eyed expression of team 10.

"Now that we are done with it" spoke Naruto, closing the game. "Let's get the training started."

**End of Flashback**

-0-

Naruto shook his head in dismay remembering how the training went everyday with team 10. Shikamaru was utterly lazy. Chōji was always hungry. Whereas Ino showed a little interest in getting stronger, either to impress him or to beat 'Forehead', which he later found out to be Sakura's nickname, he didn't know. In addition, Asuma was lazy even to get a mission for his team.

He ignored these thoughts as he jumped from tree to tree towards team 8 training field. From the records, he had found the sensei of team 8 to be strong, hardworking and skilled in the arts of illusion. Naruto could attest to that, the genjutsu weaved on him was good during their bout two weeks ago. He wanted to see how good she was in leading a team.

As he hid himself on a tree in training ground 8, Naruto's thoughts went towards the genin of team 8, whom he could see were sparring with Kurenai. Aburame Shino was calm and collected Shinobi, his personality matching that of Torune during his days in the Root. Most of his attacks were based on using his clan's techniques of utilizing insects. Naruto found his taijutsu to be basic and academy-level.

From what he could see, Hyuuga Hinata was the black sheep of the Hyuuga clan, being one with timid personality. Her taijutsu was Hyuuga clan-based **Jūken (Gentle Fist)**. Her stances were correct; her chakra control was good but her blows lacked power. Even for a taijutsu specialist in her team, she rarely came in close quarters with her opponent and stayed at back-foot.

Finally yet importantly was Kurama Yakumo. According to her case file, she had inherited her clan's Kekkai Genkai to weave the genjutsu, in its entirety but a weak body. Her genjutsu were said to be powerful enough to convince the victim's brain to physically reflect the results of her genjutsu. However, she did not have much control on her ability and was assigned Yūhi Kurenai as her teacher on the request of her father.

Yakumo was standing at the far end of the training field and could be seen painting, facing towards her team. Her skills reminded Naruto of his subordinate in Root, Sai. He too used ink to paint creatures that later came to life. As he was observing Yakumo, he felt her eyes locking to the tree where he was hiding. He could feel her emotions going erratic. His instincts tinkled as she made a quick brush stroke on her picture. Going with his instincts, Naruto performed a quick **Kawarimi no Jutsu **with a nearby log, only to observe a huge bolt of lightning falling on the tree where he was hiding, burning it to crisp. Team 8 jumped back to save themselves from the damage.

"W-What was t-that?" stuttered Hinata, trying to control her breath.

'Was that some sort of attack?' thought Shino, adjusting his goggles. Kurenai said nothing, knowing the source of attack. She looked towards Yakumo, who was staring at the forest behind her with a malicious intent on her face.

'What now? Is the _Ido (destructive personality of Yakumo) _influencing her again?' thought Kurenai worriedly. 'Her condition is worsening at a high rate!'

'Well, that was interesting.' Mused Naruto, as he observed the damage caused by a genjutsu. He could feel Yakumo's eyes on him, looking at him in ill will. Before Yakumo could perform another brush stroke on her picture, Naruto was there behind her in a **Shunshin **and delivered a quick chop at her neck, rendering her unconscious. Naruto caught her body before it hit the ground.

"Well, it took care of that." Said Naruto, as he turned around to come face-to-face with Kurenai, her two genin behind her. "Didn't it, Kurenai-san?"

"Yes, it did." Replied Kurenai, her voice cold. "I wonder what you are doing here, Naruto-san?" asked Kurenai.

"Well, this week of mine is dedicated to Team 8, Kurenai-san. Wherever team goes, I go." Replied Naruto plainly, as he slowly laid Yakumo on the ground. Hinata came in front to Yakumo and took out a healing cream that she slowly applied to Yakumo's neck.

"That's a good healing ointment there, Hinata-san. Did you make it?" asked Naruto, as he saw the red mark of his hit on Yakumo's neck healing at a faster rate. Hinata face flushed bright red at Naruto's praise.

"H-h-Hai, sensei." She mumbled.

"Ohayo, Naruto-sensei." Greeted Shino in a calm manner, "Why did you knock Yakumo out? Did she perform that lightning jutsu just now?" Naruto raised a brow as he looked at Kurenai, who was trying to ignore him and looking at Yakumo. 'So, she has not told her team about Yakumo. It must be the first time this happened.' Thought Naruto.

"Ohayo, Shino-san. Yes, she did perform that technique. Yakumo-san here has some uncontrolled powers that she needs to learn to control. That is why I had to knock her out before she could cause more damage." Replied Naruto in similar fashion. His attention then turned towards Yakumo who was slowly getting up.

"W-what happened?" asked Yakumo, rubbing her neck.

"You suddenly fainted during the team spar. Nothing to worry about." Replied Kurenai, a little nervously. Yakumo nodded her head.

'It must really be something big that Kurenai-sensei is hiding from Yakumo. Moreover, Naruto-sensei knows about it too. What could it be?' thought Shino as he adjusted his goggles.

"What are we going to do today, Kurenai-sensei?" asked Shino.

"Well, we will go to the Hokage to ask for a mission." Stated Kurenai. 'I think my team is ready for a C-rank mission. They have done enough D-rank missions for the time being. In addition, I will have extra Jonin as a support, which is better. If it weren't for Yakumo's condition, I would have taken them much earlier.' Thought Kurenai.

"Alright, Kurenai-san. Lead the way."

-0-

**15 minutes later**

**Hokage Tower, Konohagakure**

As Naruto and Team 8 entered the mission assignment room inside Hokage tower, they could see Team 7 already present inside the room. Kiba was bickering with chūnin Iruka, who was helping the Hokage on mission assignment, on D-rank missions, Kakashi was busy reading a red-cover book, Sakura was busy pulling Kiba's ear and Sasuke was brooding. The Hokage was smoking his pipe and watching the drama with amusement.

'A red _Icha-Icha, _huh? I should buy that soon from Shiho-san.' Thought Naruto, as he observed the book in Kakashi's hands.

"Iruka-sensei, enough with D-rank missions!" shouted Kiba, supported by Akamaru's barking. "I and Akamaru are sick of catching Daimyo's Wife's cat Tōra! Please give us a C-rank mission."

"Kiba-baka! Stop arguing with Iruka-sensei!" scolded Sakura. "Let's do a D-rank mission and be done with it!"

"**Cha! Stop that Kiba-baka! We have to ask Sasuke-kun for a date after the mission! And It's better that the mission ends sooner!" **supported Inner-Sakura.

"Inuzuka Kiba, you and your team members just became genin. You have to do a specific amount of D-rank missions to perform a C-rank one! Also, your sensei has to first tell whether you are ready for C-rank mission or not!" berated Iruka. As he said that, all eyes landed on Kakashi, who was busy reading giggling like a schoolgirl. Everyone sweat-dropped at his inattentiveness. Hiruzen loudly coughed to get Kakashi's attention, who looked out of his book at Hiruzen with his lazy eye.

"Kakashi, do you think your team is ready for a C-rank mission?" asked the Hokage. Kakashi quickly scanned the looks his genin were sending him before he turned back towards the Hokage.

"I do not think so, Hokage-sama! We would rather do D-rank missions for a week more." Replied Kakashi. Except for Sakura, Naruto could see other members of Team 7 visibly deflating.

"Alright then, here is the mission to catch Tōra." Said Iruka as he tossed the mission scroll towards Kakashi.

"Alright, my sweet little genin! Let's go!" said Kakashi as Team 7 turned towards the door, only to come face-to-face with Team 8 and Naruto. Kakashi passed by them but gave a subtle nod to Kurenai. Sakura and Kiba greeted their old classmates and additional sensei and moved out. Sasuke snarled at Naruto before moving out to meet his team.

"Well that was interesting!" murmured Naruto as Team 8 lined up before the aging Hokage. Hiruzen gave each of them a kindly smile before turning his attention towards Yūhi Kurenai.

"Kurenai-san, here for a regular D-rank mission for your team?" Asked Hiruzen.

"Actually Hokage-sama, I think my team is ready for a C-rank mission." Replied Kurenai firmly. Everyone in the room except the Hokage and Naruto, who just had a mild amusing expression on their faces, was watching Kurenai with astonishment. Before Iruka could say anything, Kurenai continued.

"Hokage-sama, my team has already performed 30-D rank missions in the village and their teamwork is also up by a big notch. And if there will be any problem," continued Kurenai, her eyes subtly directing towards Yakumo, "Naruto-san will be there to assist us."

Hiruzen firmly looked at Team 8 for good 2 minutes before smiling. "Alright. Iruka, pass me the mission folder." Ordered the Hokage, extending his hand towards the chūnin.

"B-but Hokage-sama. The genin are still green. Are you sure this is wise?" interrupted Iruka. He almost shrank back when Hiruzen turned his eyes towards him. "Iruka, they have completed their minimum number of D-rank missions and their sensei has given the approval for a C-rank mission. Are you questioning my law?" intimidated the Hokage. Feeling the air going cold around himself, Iruka frantically passed the C-rank mission folder and bent his head.

"Forgive me, Hokage-sama!" whimpered Iruka.

"Don't fret, Iruka. It's alright." Laughed Hiruzen, as he took the folder. "I know, as their previous sensei, you are worried about their safety. Remember, a bird has to jump out of the nest so that it can learn to fly. It is the genin's time now. The Will of Fire burns brightly. So trust in them." Lectured 'the Professor'.

"So where were we?" murmured the Hokage as he flipped through the folder. "Ah, this is perfect. A diplomatic mission to Takigakure (Hidden Village of Waterfall). There are some important amendments to be made in the current alliance contract between Konoha and Taki. This scroll," said Hiruzen, waving a red scroll with Konoha emblem on, "contains the amended contract. Your mission, Team 8, is to get this scroll to the head of Takigakure, get his approval on it and return with the approved contract. In case of any changes made by Taki, contact Konoha through messenger birds. You will not return back until you get the contract approved. Failure is not an option. This is a B-rank mission." Finished Hiruzen. He could see the genin and even Kurenai sweating a bit on the conditions laid. Naruto, however, looked ready and relaxed.

"Hokage-sama isn't B-rank mission too much for my genin right now?" asked Kurenai hesitantly.

"Kurenai, I know this looks too much right now. However, this mission is high ranked because of the diplomatic part of it. Your team now have five members, including yourself. Two of you are Jounin and four of you are clan heirs of the prominent clans of our village. Your team right now is perfect for a diplomatic mission." Explained the Hokage, as he smoked his pipe. "Also, the clan heads are asking for diplomatic experience for their heirs. You be the official team leader Kurenai and let Naruto lead the team during the diplomatic meetings because of his experience as one of the _Shugonin J__ū__nishi (Twelve Guardian Ninja)._"

Kurenai looked at her team for any response. They looked tensed because of such an important mission but there was a hidden determination hidden in each of their faces. Then she looked at her fellow blonde Jounin, who gave her a small but honest smile. It was unexpected but it relaxed her a bit and gave her a boost of confidence. She turned back to the Hokage with her head held high.

"Hokage-sama. We accept the mission."

-0-


	11. On the way to Taki

**Senju Naruto- The Rise of a Hero**

**Chapter 11 – On the way to Taki**

**Inspired by 'The Hope of the Senju Clan' by Aragon Potter**

"… "–talking

'…'-thinking

""**-Demon/Inner Sakura/Jutsu**

**Naruto does not belong to me.**

-0-

**The next day, the Northern Gates, Konohagakure**

It was six in the morning. Naruto was pacing soundlessly around the gates, waiting for the members of Team 8 to arrive. In his hands was the second edition of _Icha-Icha _series, _Icha-Icha Baiorensu _(Icha-Icha Violence), which he had bought from Shiho's shop after meeting the Hokage.

-0-

_**Flashback**_

_Naruto and Team 8 met outside of the Hokage's office to have a final word before the left for the day. Kurenai turned towards her genin, "Alright Team 8, as you heard, we have a big mission starting tomorrow. Go home and pack your stuff for a week. Meet with your parents and talk to them about diplomatic missions. And meet around 6 in the morning near the north gate, we will proceed from there to Takigakure (Hidden Waterfall Village). Any questions?"_

_At this, Hinata spoke up, "S-Sensei, will w-we be fighting ninjas?"_

"_Well, as this is more of a diplomatic mission, the chances of any fights occurring are less. Still, you never know what's going to happen. So prepare yourself accordingly." Replied Kurenai. Seeing no more questions, Kurenai nodded and dismissed her team._

_As her team left, Kurenai turned towards the blonde special Jounin, who was calmly looking at her. Seeing his deep-blue slit eyes still perturbed Kurenai, reminding of the terrible event that happened thirteen years ago. Swallowing her pride, Kurenai dumped that thought and bowed to him to apologize._

"_Naruto-san, I am sorry for everything that happened few weeks ago. I had let emotions overrule my logical sense and attacked you along with the others. We are going on mission together and I do not want my first impression on you to destroy this mission. Please accept my apology." Said Kurenai, her voice filled with remorse._

_Naruto's expression remained unchanged as he listened to the apology. He knew Kurenai's apology was sincere, and could easily feel the regret and shame rolling off her. But he could also sense the fear hidden in her expression._

"_No need to apologize, Kurenai-san." Said Naruto, as he slowly started walking towards the building's exit. Kurenai stood back straight as she saw Naruto walking away. "I know you don't like me that much and I understand that you were just covering the back of a fellow ninja from someone like me.", he continued, ignoring the sharp intake of breath by Kurenai. "Don't worry, the mission will go just fine if you can keep your biased views for me out of the way.", he said emotionlessly, kicking away that hopeful smile off Kurenai's face._

"_N-Naruto-san, I-It is not like that. I …", reasoned Kurenai, before Naruto turned and left the building. She ran to follow him but found him nowhere outside the building. Seeing no use, she sighed and started walking to find her friend, Anko._

_-0-_

_Naruto __**shunshin **__himself in front of the familiar bookstore. After seeing the red-cover book in Kakashi's hand, he exactly knew what to buy this time. Opening the door, he went inside, only to find Shiho standing on a ladder and arranging some books on a high shelf. He walked closer and stood beside the ladder._

"_Shiho-san…", called Naruto, only to catch Shiho unawares as she had not heard him coming inside earlier and her balance became unstable on the ladder._

"_Aaaahhh!" screamed Shiho as she fell backwards. Naruto was quick to act. He extended both his arms forward, catching Shiho bridal style. Her eyes were shut tight because of fear and all the books from the top shelf fell around them._

_Feeling no hard floor on her landing, Shiho peeked open her right eye. Only to find Naruto looking at her with a concerned look on his face. Realising the situation and her position into Naruto's arms, red slowly started creeping on her cheeks._

"_Are you alright?" asked Naruto, his facial emotions reflecting in his voice, as he slowly put Shiho on the floor with her head resting in his left arm. He knew now why Shiho's face was flushed red but he was concerned for the store keeper. What he didn't know that Shiho had already slipped into her fantasy world._

'_It's just like those Prince Charming stories. He is the prince who comes to the rescue of the damsel in distress. And with the sort of lineage he has, he is a Prince of Konoha.' Thought Shiho. Naruto grew more concerned when Shiho didn't reply and started to drool a little. He lightly slapped her face, which abruptly ended her dream._

"_Shiho-san? Are you alright? Can you stand?" questioned Naruto._

"_H-Hai" mumbled Shiho. She tried to stand but quickly fell back when she couldn't keep her left leg straight._

"_Aaaahhh" screamed Shiho._

"_What is it?"_

"_I-I can't stand. I think I sprained my ankle." Spoke Shiho as she took deep breaths to settle the ache in her foot._

"_Ok. I'll help you then" said Naruto with a nod as he quickly undid the arm guard on the right arm and rolled his sleeve back to expose his wrist. He neared his wrist near Shiho's mouth, who looked confused._

"_Bite on it. It will heal you." Said Naruto. Shiho looked at Naruto's wrist and back to his face, still confused._

"_My chakra has healing properties. You will be back on your feet in no time." Clarified Naruto._

"_Ha-i." mouthed Shiho, still apprehensively as she opened her mouth to bite into Naruto's wrist. As soon as her mouth closed, her eyes went wide open at the influx of chakra. Her body felt full of energy and her senses were sharper than ever._

'_So much chakra. I have never felt like this before.' She thought as she tried to savor more of it but was stopped by Naruto who took his wrist out of her mouth. She saw the bite mark on his wrist disappearing within seconds. And then she internally grumbled when Naruto rolled open the sleeve and put the arm guard on._

"_I think you are fine now" said Naruto. "Try standing now."_

_Shiho nodded as she tried to stand and this time there was no pain in her leg. She felt enough energy in her to run a whole marathon._

'_What was this chakra? I have never felt this alive before!' pondered Shiho. Naruto could sense that Shiho was intrigued with what just happened. But he was in no mood to sate her curiosity. He wanted to keep his secrets hidden from the public as long as he could. He made two __**Kage-Bunshin**__ to put the fallen books back on the shelf._

"_Now that you are fine, shall we get back to the business?" asked Naruto._

"_How did you do this, Naruto-san? No one I have seen has such type of chakra. And how did your wound heal so quickly?" questioned Shiho, adjusting her glasses._

"_Sorry, Shiho-san. I cannot tell you my secrets now, can I? Plus, you work at a bookstore. I am sure you will find some books related to the questions you asked." said Naruto, his voice slowly losing the mirth. "And I would appreciate if you keep this event just between us two. I don't want anything bad happening to you." Shiho almost recoiled listening to an underhanded warning given to her. She quickly nodded her head negatively to save herself._

"_No-no-no-no. I won't tell anybody. I promise." She spoke quickly._

"_Thanks." Said Naruto, as he moved towards the store counter. Shiho quickly gathered herself as walked to the opposite of the counter. The __**Kage Bunshin **__had dispelled themselves as they were done with setting and arranging the books on the self._

"_Can you sell me the next book of the series?" asked Naruto. Shiho's cheeks turned red before she picked out a red-cover book from the shelf behind her._

"_You are in luck." Said Shiho. "This is the last copy of the book left in the store. The whole consignment got sold out within two days. I will sell it to you for free, for saving me and healing me later." Said Shiho as she slowly extended her hand with the book. Naruto raised his brow listening to the deal. This was a courteous offer and he was not the one to look a gift horse in the mouth. So, instead of just taking the book, he pulled Shiho's hand, making her lean on the counter towards him. Shiho's eyes went wide as Naruto titled his head and landed his lips on her left cheek._

_The kiss lasted only two seconds. But for Shiho, it lasted for all eternity._

"_Thank you, Shiho-chan." Said Naruto, as he slowly pulled back from the kiss. Pocketing the red-cover book in his kunai pouch, he walked towards the door without looking back at Shiho who slowly sat back in her chair, still dazed from the moment. Her hand slowly rose to trace the moist imprint left on her cheek._

"_Naruto-kun"_

_A smile came on her face._

_**Flashback End**_

_-0-_

'Hmm, this book's approach is completely different from the previous one. The woman doesn't know how to respond to the man's feelings and is initially cold and hostile towards him. But as the story proceeds, man's love is slowly affecting her and she is gradually showing her warm side to him. Interesting.' Pondered Naruto, as he flipped through another page.

From the corner of the eye, he could see a grey-clad figure walking towards him at a steady pace. As he neared, Naruto could trace the dark brown spiky hair and round black glasses. Among his age group, Shino was only one who came close to Naruto's height. And the only genin to gain his respect so far.

"Ohayo, Shino-san. Ready for the mission?" asked Naruto, as he lifted his eyes off the book. Shino was carrying a green color backpack with him. Hands in the pocket and face calm and composed, he looked ready as ever.

"Ohayo, Naruto-sensei. I am ready." Replied Shino. "Is there anything I should know before we leave for the mission?"

"Hai. Just call me Naruto from now." Replied Naruto, his face equally calm and composed. If there was any change in Shino's facial expression, Naruto saw none because of his high collar. But he easily felt that Shino was somewhat amused.

"Hai, Naruto." Replied Shino.

Naruto smiled a little before his eyes went wide as his instincts alerted him to the upcoming danger. Forming two quick one-handed seals, with book still in his hands, Naruto channeled chakra around him. Shino saw that out of thin air, droplets of water started forming and gathering in front of the blonde sensei, forming a wall. He was confused of what was happening when, out of the blue, two **kunai** aimed at Naruto came crashing into the water wall and were caught by Naruto when their speed was dampened by the water.

'Taking water out of the air still takes a lot of chakra and focus. I have to train harder from now on.' Thought Naruto, taking long, deep breaths.

'I didn't even sense them coming. And Naruto here even took the water out of the air. Maybe because he is the grandson of the Second.' Thought Shino, as looked in the direction from where the weapons were fired. He saw Kurenai standing with his other two teammates. Kurenai seemed to be very cross about something whereas Hinata and Yakumo were anxiously standing behind her. Kurenai marched straight towards the blonde Jounin and the other genin quietly followed her. Naruto's expression turned grim when she stopped before him and raised her finger to point towards the book in his hands.

"Have you gone mental, woman?" asked Naruto, with a scowl.

"Naruto, what is that book in your hands?" asked Kurenai with displeasure, ignoring the question asked by the blonde Jounin.

"What the book is or is not should be none of your concern, Kurenai-san. The actual question is; why did you try to attack me again?" retorted Naruto.

"A book like that should not be in your hands. Are Kakashi's bad habits getting on you?"

"Why? Is something wrong with it? Is that what you were trying to do? Using my book as a target for your **kunai**?" countered Naruto. "If you don't want me to read it in front of you, just say it. I won't read it then." instructed Naruto, as he pocketed his book and angrily turned to face away from her.

'I should not have heeded Anko's tip and to play hard ball and deal with him like he is some newbie ninja brat. Our non-existent relation just deteriorated again. I should have rather asked Kakashi on this. He is a ninja prodigy himself. He would have known how to deal with Naruto.' Pondered Kurenai, before she thought of how to proceed from this situation. Her genin were looking at her with anticipation. Moving towards Naruto, she kept her hand on Naruto's shoulder, making him turn his head towards her, his blue eye fiercely looking at her.

"I am sorry for being so aggressive towards such trivial matter, Naruto-san. It's just that this book is not suitable for someone your age." Said Kurenai, taking a peaceful approach this time. Naruto took a deep sigh before turning back to face Kurenai properly.

"Kurenai-san, I am trying to fill few holes in my knowledge. I won't read the book in front of you. But please refrain from approaching me like you did in future." Said Naruto mirthlessly, as he handed the kunai back to Kurenai. She nodded and kept her weapons back into her pouch. Both then faced towards the genin of the team, who were silently waiting for them to finish their talk.

"So what is the book about?" asked Shino, breaking the silence, as he pushed back his black goggles. Kurenai tried to take a subtle approach to it but the blonde Jounin beat her with his answer.

"Life and Sex" worded Naruto, indifferent to the reactions of the others around him. Shino and Kurenai got a light blush on their cheeks, whereas the genin kunoichi's faces were as red as tomatoes.

Kurenai was the first one to come out of the trance as she coughed loudly, getting everyone's attention.

"Alright enough of this talk. Let's get into diamond formation. Hinata will be at the back of the formation. She can use her **Byakugan **to keep a check at both front and back. I and Yakumo will stay in the middle. We aren't heavy hitters so it is more suitable to cover the team" said Kurenai, before her attention turned towards Naruto.

"Naruto-san, I don't know much about what you can do. Which position is most suitable for you?" asked Kurenai.

"I am a sensor-type and a heavy hitter. It is more suitable for me to stay in front." Confirmed Naruto.

"Hai. So Naruto-san will lead the formation. Yakumo will be flanked in-between by Shino and I in the middle and Hinata will be at the tail of the formation. It will take us around two days to reach the Hidden Waterfall Village. Let's get moving." Instructed Kurenai.

"Hai!" chorused Team 8, as they ran out of the gates.

No one among team 8 took notice of the small seeds littered on the ground as they ran over them.

-0-

**Naruto and Team 8, en-route to Takigakure**

"Kurenai-sensei, I am tired." Spoke Yakumo, as she jumped from tree to tree along with her teammates. Kurenai could see the how drained Yakumo looked. It had only been three hours since they moved from Konoha and their speed was modest. Her other two genin still looked comfortable with the pace but Yakumo looked haggard.

She knew Yakumo was physically unfit but it was her use of her clan's bloodline limit in its entirety that made Yakumo's father and clan head, Kurama Murakumo, petition the Hokage to train her daughter as a proper genjutsu were even hard for Kurenai to break. Kurenai was not sure if she was a capable tutor for Yakumo to build her into a genjutsu-only ninja but she was going to try her best to bring the potential out of her student.

But before she could reply, Naruto spoke, "Here, let me help you," forming two hand-seals, ending with a snake seal.

**Doton: Kage Bunshin (Earth Release: Shadow Clone)**

Everyone saw Naruto opening his mouth as he spat some mud down on the ground, which quickly formed into another Naruto. The clone jumped near Yakumo and turned his back towards her.

"Kurama-hime, hop on up. I will carry you from here." Said the clone, as his hands motioned her to jump on his back. Yakumo was confused as she looked at Kurenai for advice. Her sensei just gave her a small nod and that was all she needed before she carefully hopped on the back of the clone.

"Please take care of me." Spoke Yakumo softly, as she wrapped her arms around the clone's neck. With that, they started moving again towards their mission destination.

-0-

The team halted its movements as it got harder to maneuver comfortably through the dark. A crescent moon shone dimly in the clear night sky along with the stars as Naruto and others searched for a good place to camp for the night. They were only few hours away from the borders of the Land of Fire.

Coming out into a clearing, they found themselves standing on the shore of a small lake. The water was clear and chittering and croaking of insects and frogs could be heard in the clearing.

"This looks like a decent spot to camp for the night" spoke Kurenai, as she turned towards her genin to address them. "Alright guys, take out your sleeping bags and we will rest here tonight. So, who is going to guard first?" asked Kurenai. But she noticed that her genin were not focusing on her but behind her. Following their line of sight, she turned, only to find Naruto walking towards the centre of the clearing.

Focusing on the chakra reserve in the core of his body, Naruto sent a required amount to his legs as he performed the hand-seals to mould it according to his will.

**Snake-Rat-Ox-Ram-Ox-Snake**

**Doton: Iwa Shichūka no Jutsu (Earth Release: Stone Four Pillar House Technique)**

The eyes of the onlookers widened as they saw a house made of rocks and mud slowly rose up from the ground. It was a two-story cottage with Japanese style architecture with doors and windows. And right above the entry, there was the Senju Clan insignia inscribed on it.

Naruto exhaled the breath he was holding as he settled the chakra in his body. He had thought about a decent sized house he saw in his clan compound when he moulded the chakra. And he was not disappointed with his creation. He then took out few paper seals and pasted them around the cottage. Turning his attention back towards his team, he found the genin and Kurenai looking at him in awe.

"Welcome to the Springfield Cottage" said Naruto with a bit of mirth. "This place is protected by a barrier, so that we can camp in peace. There are two rooms inside. Choose whichever you want."

"This looks great, Naruto." Called Kurenai. "What are the seals for?"

"They will keep the cottage hidden from the intruders." He replied. "I am going for a swim. I will catch some fish for dinner." Said Naruto, as he started walking towards the lake. Kurenai turned her attention towards her team who were attentively looking at Naruto walking away.

"Hinata, Yakumo" spoke Kurenai, drawing the attention of her genin. "You two look very tired. You both go and freshen up. Shino and I will go gather some wood for cooking."

"Hai sensei," responded the two female genin of the team as they broke up to perform their respective chores.

-0-

**Somewhere near Waterfall Village**

A lone man could be seen walking silently under the canopy. The only sound that could be heard was that out frogs croaking and insects chittering. The figure was wearing a long grey cloak which covered his body and half of the face. Long, spiky hair were sticking out from the head which were held out of his face by a bandanna. A pair of small, dark eyes were constantly checking the surroundings to make sure that he wasn't followed.

As he kept moving on his path, he reached a clearing around one of the many waterfalls that surrounded Takigakure. He took out a small bundle out of his pocket and started weighing it in his hands.

"Well, isn't this a pleasant surprise" said a figure standing on a tree branch behind the cloaked figure. He jumped down the branch and crouched in front of the cloaked man. "What brings you here in the middle of the night, Suien-sama?"

"Where are the other two, Murasame?" asked Suien.

"They are sleeping, Suien-sama." Replied Murasame. "Is it time for us to accomplish our mission?"

"Well, that will have to wait." Replied Suien. "We have a new situation. If we handle this well, our work will be easier when we will seek the Hero Water."

"Is there anything you want us to do, Suien-sama?" asked Murasame. Suien nodded and hurled the pouch at Murasame to catch, which he did.

"A team of clan heirs is coming from Konoha to Taki to amend the alliance both villages currently have. From the reports I received, they are still genin. I want you to make sure they don't reach Taki. That will be a big blow to the alliance between Taki and Konoha. It will make things easier when we will assassinate the leader of Takigakure and rule the village and Hero Water."

"What about Shibuki, Suien-sama? He is your student, isn't he? Will we kill him too?" asked Murasame.

"Shibuki is a coward. He is intelligent enough to learn skills I taught him but cowers behind others when he is on field. I hold no sympathy for him." Replied Suien. "Now with the money I gave you, I hope there won't be any problem handling a team of green genin and their sensei."

"We won't disappoint you, Suien-sama." Nodded Murasame as he **shunshin **away.

'Just a little more time and Takigakure and Hero Water would be mine to rule.' Thought Suien as he himself disappeared in the dense forest.

-0-

**That is all for this chapter.**

**Sorry for the long delay between the updates. Travelling and school ate up my writing time. New update will be posted soon.**


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